AN 



ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST: 



OR, 



A SCRIPTURAL VINDICATION 



OF THE 



ORDERS AND POWERS OF THE MINISTRY 



OF THE 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 



BY NATHAN BANGS, D. D. 



I WILL ALSO MAKE THY OFFICERS PEACE, AND THINE EXACTORS 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. — Isaiah, lx. 17. 

KaTag-7]Gtj rovg eiUGKonovg avrcov ev diKaioovvr], rovg dtciKovovg 
sv Trig-ei. — St. Clement. 

Translation— I WILL APPOINT THINE OVERSEERS IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, 
AND THY DEACONS IN FAITH. 



NEW-YORK : 




PUBLISHED BY T. MASON AND G. LANE, 

FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AT THE CONFERENCE OFFICE, 
200 MULBERRY-STREET. 

J. Collord, Printer. 
1837. 




\ 



" Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1837, by T. Mason 
and G. Lane, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern 
District of New- York." 



Stereotyped by Henry W. Rees, 
200 Mulberry Street, 
New York. 



PREFACE. 



While travelling the Niagara circuit, in Upper 
Canada, in the latter part of the year 1804, as a 
colleague with the Rev. Daniel Pickett, a discussion 
incidentally arose between him and a minister of the 
Church of England, on the validity of our ordination. 
Some letters passed between them in reference to 
this subject, in one of which, from the clergyman of 
the Establishment, it was asked, "If Dr. Coke were 
satisfied with the validity of his ordination, why did 
he apply to the house of bishops, in the United States, 
for a reconsecration ?" This question disclosed a 
fact of which we were both ignorant, and of course 
could not reply to it. The next spring, while attend- 
ing the conference in the city of New-York, the sub- 
ject was mentioned to Bishop Asbury, who explained 
to us the whole transaction which passed between Dr. 
Coke and Bishops White and Seabury ; and, at the 
same time, expressed his regret that Dr. Coke had so 
precipitately committed himself in this affair. Here 
the matter ended for that time. 

This circumstance, however, awakened my mind 
to the subject, and led me to make inquiries respecting 
the authorities on which Mr. Wesley and others de- 
pended for a justification of their proceedings in the 
organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Being young in the ministry, as well as in years, and 



4 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



my time wholly taken up in travelling and preaching 
in the new settlements of Upper Canada, where there 
were but few books beside the Bible, and having 
neither the means to purchase nor the time to examine 
them, but little progress was made in this important 
inquiry for several years. In the meantime, it was 
frequently sounded in my ears, that the Methodists 
were interlopers, that their ministerial orders were 
spurious, and that the ordinances of the Lord's supper 
and baptism, as administered by them, were desecrated^ 
by passing through unconsecrated hands. These re- 
proaches were not merely the expressions of thought- 
less minds in convivial conversations, but were gravely 
asserted in print, particularly by Protestant Episcopal 
writers, and more especially in the Churchman's 
Magazine. 

In the year 1809, while travelling on the Albany 
circuit, being in company with a clergyman of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church, our conversation turned 
upon the subject of the validity of our ordination, and 
having expressed a wish to be better informed on this 
topic — for, indeed, neither of us seemed prepared to 
discuss it with much accuracy or depth of thought — 
he said that he would put a book into my hands, 
which would, he thought, give me the needed infor- 
mation. This was none other than " An Inquiry into 
the validity of Methodist Episcopacy," by N. L., who 
was supposed to be Mr. Kewley, an apostate from 
Methodism. On looking at the title, I told my clerical 
friend that I would read it, on condition that he would 
read an answer to it, which I had in my possession, 
written by a gentleman calling himself, Armageddon. 
To this he assented, and we parted with mutual good 
will toward each other ; and those who are acquainted 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



5 



with these respective authors, will naturally conclude 
that neither of us could be much enlightened or 
edified ; for neither argument nor brotherly love was 
exemplified by the one or the other ; the latter, 
especially, deals in dogmatisms as course and dis- 
gusting, as the former does in smooth sophistry and 
refined arrogance. * 

Without entering into a more minute detail of the 
process through which my mind passed in the inves- 
tigation of this intricate and long-vexed question, I 
will remark, that I greedily read every thing I could 
find which had a bearing on the subject, whether 
written by friends or enemies, as well as those whose 
writings, on account of their antiquity, could have had 
no immediate reference to the question in dispute 
between us and the Protestant Episcopalians ; and 
being fully convinced, from as diligent an inquiry as I 
could make — and I had many temptations to induce 
me to arrive at a contrary result — I at length embodied 
my thoughts in a little volume, which was published 
under the sanction of the Book Committee, at our 
Book Room, in 1820, under the following title : — 

" A Vindication of Methodist Episcopacy." 

In the preliminary observations to that imperfect 
sketch, the following reasons were assigned for the 
publication, which, as they will apply with equal force 

# I have been informed, and I believe correctly, that Mr. 
Kevvley gave evidence of the consistency of his faith, by going 
first to the Protestant Episcopal Church, then to the Roman 
Catholic, and finally, that he might " prove all things, and hold 
fast that which" he esteemed the best, he turned a Jew, re- 
ceived circumcision, and was admitted to the synagogue ; but 
whether as a priest or not I am unable to say. How many 
others would follow his footsteps were they to carry out their 
principles into full practice ! 



6 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



and propriety at the present time, are adopted, With 
some slight verbal alterations, as a part of the present 
preface. 

" Perhaps there are few subjects of a religious 
nature involved in greater obscurity, and which have 
occasioned sharper disputes, than the question, What 
was the primitive mode of church government ? Its 
obscurity, indeed, affords a very obvious reason why 
ecclesiastical writers have been so much divided con- 
cerning it ; — for those truths which are expressly re- 
vealed as articles of faith, or may be easily deduced 
from given principles, do not so readily admit of con- 
troversy ; and, therefore, respecting all such, Christians 
are more generally agreed. 

" If we had a systematical draft of the primitive 
church in the Sacred Scriptures, with specific refer- 
ence to the order and manner of consecrating her 
ministers, the particular mode of her government, &c, 
we might determine, with greater precision, on this 
important question ; but we are left to form our judg- 
ment upon these points from insulated passages of 
Scripture, used by the writer for other purposes than 
to prove any particular mode of church government, 
from historical narratives, and from incidental circum- 
stances. This imperfect manner in which the order 
of the church is sketched out in the Holy Scriptures, 
affords no small proof that no specific mode is essen- 
tial to constitute an evangelical church ; otherwise 
the Holy Ghost would doubtless have left us full infor- 
mation respecting the exact manner of organizing the 
cnurch, and the official duties of her ministers. 

" The agitated state of the Christian world in rela- 
tion to this subject, originating not only from the 
causes already noticed, but also from the prejudice 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



7 



of education, and the different usages which have ob- 
tained among the several denominations into which 
the Christian world is divided, renders it somewhat 
difficult to settle the present question satisfactorily. 
Nothing, indeed, is more common than for each com- 
munity of Christians to make their own established 
forms of church government a medium of Scripture 
interpretation upon this subject ; and to establish their 
point, they bring to their aid a huge mass of testi- 
mony, collected from the uncertain traditions of the 
church. Thus, no sooner does a Protestant Episco- 
palian read the word bishop, than his imagination 
beholds a modern diocesan, having ecclesiastical juris- 
diction over a specified number of parishes and of 
parish ministers. A Presbyterian or a Congregation- 
alist thinks he sees the pastor of a single congregation, 
officiating at stated times, according to a mutual con- 
tract between him and his people. A Roman Catholic, 
with loftier look than either of the former, recognizes, 
whenever he reads of Peter or Paul, a pope, seated 
in splendid opulence, surrounded with his twelve car- 
dinals, and holding an infallible jurisdiction over the 
judgments and consciences of all his clergy and 
people. In this manner, each, looking through the 
glass of his own church establishment, views as many 
different modes of church government, as there are 
different orders of professing Christians. 

" In the midst of such jarring sentiments, on a sub- 
ject rendered more obscure and perplexing still, by 
the manner in which it has been handled by some 
writers, it cannot be reasonably expected that demon- 
stration will accompany our inquiries. Divesting our- 
selves, however, as far as possible, of prejudice and 
prepossession, let us approach the subject with that 



8 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

calmness and deliberation which ought ever to accom- 
pany us in the investigation of truth, and with that 
diffidence which becomes dependent and fallible 
creatures. 

" This inquiry is entered upon at present, for the 
following reasons : — - 

"1. It has frequently been asserted, especially by 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, that, whatever right 
we may have to preach the gospel, we have no autho- 
rity to administer the ordinances of Christianity, be- 
cause we have not received a valid ordination. This 
specious objection it seems necessary to obviate. Let 
it be recollected, however, that while our own minis- 
try is vindicated from what we consider a false asper- 
sion, we pretend not to call in question the authority 
of other churches. Were it practicable, we would gladly 
avoid all animadversions on any other Christian com- 
munity, and present the question unembarrassed with 
controversy ; but the rude manner in which we have 
been assailed upon this point, by some who set up an 
exclusive claim to a valid ministry, by virtue of an 
uninterrupted succession of bishops superior to elders, 
from the apostles' days, makes it necessary to notice 
some of their arguments. This, however, shall be 
done in as inoffensive a way as the nature of the sub- 
ject will admit ; being desirous to give needless pain 
to no one ; much less to unchristian them, by calling 
in question the authority of their ministers, or the 
validity of their ordinances. For the reasons already 
assigned, ecclesiastical waiters, who investigate this 
subject, ought to evince a spirit of forbearance towards 
each other. Were an exact archetype of the Chris- 
tian church, as it relates to her ministerial orders and 
functions, found in the Holy Scriptures, we could 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



9 



speak with less diffidence, and pronounce with greater 
certainty. But, without presuming to condemn others, 
we think w r e have sufficient authority from the Scrip- 
tures of truth, and from the usages of the primitive 
church, to do as we have done, and as we still con- 
tinue to do. 

" It is certainly matter of no small consequence to 
ascertain whether all the persons baptized by us and 
others not belonging to the Protestant Episcopalians, 
w r ere legally baptized or not, — whether all those who 
receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper at our 
hands, are guilty of partaking of unconsecrated bread 
and wine, — and whether all those ministers who 
honestly dissent from them in respect to the divine 
right of episcopacy, are intruders into the sacred office. 
The sweeping arguments used by our antagonists 
upon this subject, spread wide desolation among the 
churches not under their ecclesiastical jurisdiction. 
From the unhappy consequences resulting from such 
comprehensive assertions, as go to exclude all others 
from the right of administering the ordinances of 
Christ, we think we are bound in conscience to 
exempt ourselves, because we think it a matter of high 
importance to justify a practice so intimately con- 
nected with the present and future happiness of im- 
mortal souls. 

" 2. This is the more necessary, because there are 
very many among us, who not having made this subject 
a matter of study, are at a loss for arguments of self- 
defence when assailed by those who endeavour to 
shake their faith. For the purpose of confirming the 
faith of all such, an analogy between our own and the 
primitive church has been attempted. 

" 3. There are others to whom we are little known. 
1* 



10 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

They may have heard of us by the hearing of the ear f 
and perhaps the reports have generally been unfa- 
vourable. To rectify the mistakes of all such, they 
are herein presented with a concise, though, I trust, 
impartial view, of the manner in which our ministers 
are called, educated, consecrated, and governed. 
They will thus be able to judge for themselves respect- 
ing the authority of our ministry, and the validity of 
our ordinances. 

" 4. In accomplishing the object we contemplated, it 
has been found necessary to take a short and compre- 
hensive view of the state of the church from the days 
of the apostles to the present time, and to glance at 
the opinions of some of the most eminent divines at 
the memorable era of the reformation from popery. 
This mode of investigation, though somewhat prolix 
and perplexing, is needful to enable us to behold the 
source of those corruptions whence have generated 
the noxious weeds of error in doctrine, and those im- 
pure streams in practice, which have at times infected 
and polluted the church. It will be seen, with pain- 
ful emotions, that pride and ambition prompted those 
of them who had become eminent by their talents, to 
exercise a lordly dominion over their inferiors, and to 
extend their clerical jurisdiction beyond the bounds 
originally prescribed them by Christ and his apostles. 
Having once gained the ascendency, so far from suf- 
fering a diminution of their power and authority, they 
sought every opportunity to augment and strengthen 
it. In vain, therefore, may we seek for a primitive 
model of the church in the writings of the fathers, 
especially after the close of the third century of 
the Christian era. In the course of this investiga- 
tion, therefore, we hope to derive some assistance 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 11 

from the early history of the church, reminding our- 
selves, in the meantime, of the fallibility of ecclesi- 
astical writers, upon this as well as upon all other 
subjects. When we take leave of the inspired writers, 
we no longer have an infallible guide. 

" To the Scriptures, therefore, we must make our 
ultimate appeal, upon this as well as upon all other 
subjects of an ecclesiastical nature. So far as they 
lend us their infallible light, and we suffer ourselves 
to be guided by it, we shall not be led astray." 

After maturing the subject, and still consulting 
those authors which have fallen in my way for 
seventeen years, the time which has elapsed since 
that publication, I have seen no cause to alter the views 
therein expressed, except perhaps in one single instance 
respecting those who were the successors of the 
evangelists, and the manner in which the name bishop, 
and the episcopal office, were substituted for those 
eminent primitive superintendents of the church. And 
as the principal arguments used in that little book, as 
well as the testimonies from the sacred Scriptures, 
and the primitive fathers, though much enlarged and 
amplified, are embraced in this volume, it is hereby 
cancelled, as the reader who possesses this will have 
substantially, and I hope, somewhat improved, all 
which was contained in that. 

As to the present performance, it must speak for 
itself. When I commenced writing, I had not the 
most distant thought of pursuing the present subject 
to such a length. Seeing one day among the exchange 
papers which visit the office of the Christian Advocate 
and Journal, the communication in the " Churchman," 
a weekly religious paper published under the patronage 
of Bishop Onderdonk, in the city of New-York, which 



12 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

originally appeared in the " Gambier Observer," a 
kindred publication issued under a similar patronage 
by the bishop of Ohio, I felt it a duty to make some 
remarks upon it, intending at the time to write two 
or three short numbers only, with a view simply to 
ward off the blow which the writer had aimed at our 
church, and there let the matter rest. Finding, how- 
ever, as I proceeded, that the subject opened before 
me, that one thought suggested another ; and knowing 
also that high pretensions had recently been put forth 
by other writers in the same communion, in favour 
of their exclusive right to a valid ministry ; and being, 
moreover, assured from some of my personal friends, 
that the discussion was loudly called for, and was 
likely to be productive of good to the church ; I laid 
aside my own scruples in respect to the propriety of 
pursuing the discussion, being fully convinced that 
I was in the path of duty in exerting myself 
to do the subject justice, and to sift the question, 
as far as I was able, to the bottom. The result is 
before the reader — and he must judge of it in the light 
of scriptural and rational evidence, as he should of all 
other human performances, with an impartial regard 
to truth, and a suitable allowance for the common 
frailties of our nature, and the imperfections of human 
judgment. If an honest intention to ascertain and 
follow the truth should shield me from the severity of 
criticism, and the harshness of censure, I am sure the 
work will be treated with that fairness and candour 
which alone will entitle any objections which may be 
made to a respectful notice. 

That which mainly led to the publication of these 
numbers in a volume, has been the frequent calls for 
them to appear in this form, both from private cor- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



13 



respondents, whose names, I am sure, were I allowed 
to mention them, would greatly recommend the work ; 
and from several of our weekly papers ; but more 
especially by the unanimous votes of four of our 
annual conferences, namely, Baltimore, New-York, 
New-England, and Troy, the resolutions of which, 
except that of the Troy Conference, which has not 
come to hand, will be found below.* 

In preparing these numbers for the press in this 
more permanent form, they have undergone a thorough 
revision, one entire number has been added, several 
notes appended, whole paragraphs and sentences 
modified, numerous verbal corrections have been made, 
and the whole subjected to that rigid scrutiny — avail- 
ing myself of any suggestions which I have either 
seen or heard from friends or those who are more 
especially opposed to the theory I have adopted — 
which w T as deemed necessary to secure them, as far as 

* RESOLUTION OF THE BALTIMORE CONFERENCE. 

Resolved, — That in view of the much agitated controversy 
on the subject of Episcopacy, this Conference respectfully re- 
commend to the Book Committee at New-York, to publish, in 
a bound volume, the articles published in the Christian Advocate 
and Journal, signed " Ecclesia." 

RESOLUTION OF THE NEW-YORK CONFERENCE. 

Resolved, — That the Book Agents be requested, with the 
consent of the author, to publish the numbers of " Ecclesia," 
which have appeared in the Christian Advocate and Journal, 
in the form of a book. 

RESOLUTION OF THE NEW-ENGLAND CONFERENCE. 

Resolved, — That this Conference request that the writer 
of the articles now publishing in the Christian Advocate and 
Journal, entitled, "Original Church of Christ," issue them in 
the form of a book, when he shall have finished the numbers, 
esteeming them an able defence of the validity and scriptural 
character of our ordinations. 



14 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

possible, from errors, either in doctrine, argument, or 
testimony. But I have had too much experience in 
passing works through the press, to flatter myself that 
the present volume will be free from blemish, either 
as to style or typographical execution — though, if it 
be not correct, it will not be for want of care and 
labour to make it so. 

As this volume firs', appeared in the form of 
numbers in the Christian Advocate and Journal, and 
as each number generally contains a complete thought 
in itself, it has been judged most advisable to let them 
remain under this denomination, instead of a more 
formal division into chapters and sections, having 
prefixed, however, a summary of contents at the head 
of each number. 

I have nothing more to add, than my most fervent 
prayers that the Divine Head of the church may, 
through the agency of the Holy Spirit, accompany 
this imperfect effort to defend what I believe to be 
His truth, with his blessing to the heart of every 
reader, to his edification in holiness, and to his 
steadfastness in the faith,, that he may finally attain 
to everlasting life. 

N. BANGS. 

New. York, June 28, 18a7.. 



AN 

ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



NUMBER L 

The occasion of this discussion deprecated — Points of difference 
between the Protestant Episcopal and primitive churches — A 
lay head unscriptural — Ministers of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church restricted by their commission — This contrary to primitive 
usage — Apology for this discussion. 

" The Protestant Episcopal Church is an original 
Church of Christ. The Methodist society is not, as 
they have separated from the Church of England, 
without having, in the judgment of that Church, a 
valid ministry." 

So says a writer in the Gambier Observer, who 
signs himself, Pro Ecclesia, and whose object appears 
to be to prove that Methodist ministers ought not to 
be admitted to the pulpits of the Protestant Episcopal 
churches. I had hoped that the age of bigotry was 
fast passing away, and that it would soon be suc- 
ceeded by a spirit of liberality, which might lead to 
that feeling of reciprocal friendship which ought, one 
would suppose, to characterize Christians of all deno- 
minations. It would seem, however, from the above 
and similar avowals, which I have occasionally seen, 
that I have labored under a mistake. 

Now, how does it appear that the Protestant Epis- 

1 copal Church is an "original Church of Christ?" I 
suppose the writer founds his opinion upon the assump- 
tion that that Church has derived its authority in an 

| uninterrupted succession of episcopal ordination from 



16 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

the days of the apostles. I will not now enter into 
this question. Allowing that, so far as the simple act 
of consecration is concerned, there has been no in- 
terruption in the episcopal office, and that the Church 
of England has received its authority in this respect 
through a direct line, I shall undertake to prove that 
it has departed, in some respects at least, from the origi- 
nal church of Christ, as formed by him and his apostles. 

1 , In the first place, the apostles and all the primi- 
tive evangelists and preachers were chosen by Jesus 
Christ himself, and approved by their brethren and 
the whole church. In this particular the Church of 
England has departed from apostolic usage ; for the 
bishops of this church are appointed by a layman, 
the king, — and what is more astonishing still, this lay- 
man himself is by that very church constituted its 
head ! Now let the sticklers for this exclusive ori- 
ginality produce a single example, during the first 
four centuries, if they can, where a bishop was selected 
by a single layman, and appointed to his charge ; 
and where a layman was declared the head of the 
Christian church. 

2. Jesus Christ commissioned his apostles to 
(t Go into all the world, and preach the gospel 
to every creature." But when the archbishop of Can- 
terbury was authorized by the British parliament to 
consecrate the late Bishop White for the American 
episcopate, he was restricted in the exercise of his 
episcopal office, and even as a simple preacher of the 
gospel, to places not within the British dominions. 
Hence, an American bishop, going into the British 
dominions, is prohibited not only from exercising his 
office as a bishop, but even preaching ; nor is a priest 
or deacon allowed to preach in any Episcopal church 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



1? 



but they are all recognized simply as laymen* Is not 
this a departure from the original character of the 
Christian ministry ? Were the apostles, and primitive 
evangelists, and preachers, thus restricted in their 

* The following is the act of Parliament in reference to this 
subject : — 

" An act to empower the archbishop of Canterbury, or the ojrchbishop of 
York, for the time being, to consecrate to the office of a bishop, persons 
being subjects or citizens of countries out of his majesty' 's dominions. 

" Whereas, by the laws of this realm no person can be conse- 
crated to the office of a bishop without the king's license for 
his election to that office, and the royal mandate under the great 
seal for his confirmation and consecration : And, whereas every 
person who shall be consecrated to the said office, is required 
to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and also the oath 
of due obedience to the archbishop ; And, whereas there are 
divers persons subjects or citizens of countries out of his ma- 
jesty's dominions, inhabiting and residing within the said coun- 
tries, who profess the public worship of Almighty God according 
to the principles of the Church of England, and who, in order 
to provide a regular succession of ministers for the service of 
their church, are desirous of having certain of the subjects or 
citizens of those countries consecrated bishops, according to the 
form of consecration in the Church of England : Be it enacted 
by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice 
and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in, 
this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the 
same, that from and after the passing of this act, it shall and 
may be lawful to and for the archbishop of Canterbury, or the 
archbishop of York, for the time being, together with such other 
bishops as they shall call to their assistance, to consecrate per- 
sons being subjects or citizens of countries out of his majesty's 
dominions, bishops for the purposes aforesaid, without the king's 
license for their election, or the royal mandate under the great 
seal for their confirmation and consecration, and without requiring 
them to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the 
oath of due obedience to the archbishop for the time being. 
Provided always, that no persons shall be consecrated bishops 
in the manner herein provided, until the archbishop of Canter- 
bury, or the archbishop of York, for the time being, shall have 



18 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST* 



labors by law, or by any act of consecration ? Lei 
him prove it who can. And until Pro Ecclesia earr 
do it, let him moderate his zeal a little in his arrogant 
claim for the originality of his church, based as it is* 
upon an assumption as destitute of foundation as is the 
authority from Scripture for putting a layman at the 
head of the church, or for narrowing down the ori- 
ginal commission to preach the gospel to all the world? 
so as to limit it to the land of Judea. 

3. I am happy to find, since this number was first 
published, my views upon this subject confirmed by 

first applied for, and obtained his majesty's license, by warrant 
under his royal signet and sign manual, authorizing and empow- 
ering him to perform such consecration, and expressing the 
name or names of the persons so to be consecrated ; nor until 
the said archbishop has been fully ascertained of their suffi- 
ciency in good learning, of the soundness of their faith, and of 
the purity of their manners. Provided also, and be it hereby 
declared, that no person or persons consecrated to the office of 
a bishop in the manner aforesaid, nor any person or persons 
deriving their consecration from or under any bishops so con- 
secrated, nor any person or persons admitted to the order of 
deacon or priest by any bishop or bishops so consecrated, or by 
the successor or successors of any bishop or bishops so conse- 
crated, shall be thereby enabled to exercise his or their respect- 
ive office or offices within his majesty's dominions. Provided 
always, and be it further enacted, that a certificate of such con- 
secration shall be given under the hand and seal of the arch- 
bishop who consecrates, containing the name of the person so 
consecrated, with the addition as well of the country whereof 
he is a subject or citizen, as of the church in which he is 
appointed bishop, and the further description of his not having 
taken the said oaths, being exempted from the obligation of so 
doing by virtue of this act." 

It was this act of the British Parliament which removed the 
barrier out of the way of the English bishops, which had here- 
tofore prevented them from consecrating an American episco- 
pate, as they had frequently been requested to do. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 19 

a -writer in the Churchman, of June 17, though on 
the main subject of his article, which is to show that 
the power of legislation in the church has been dele 
gated to the bishops as a divine right, I differ from 
him almost toto ccelo. While, however, he is endea- 
voring to maintain this indefensible position, without 
designing it — for he seems entirely unconscious of the 
point to which his argument carries him — he fully 
sustains the sentiment that the restrictions put upon 
the ordination of their bishops, priests, and deacons, 
is unscriptural, and therefore not in accordance with 
the original church of Christ. Hear him in the fol- 
lowing strong language :— 

" The church is not a confused multitude of inde- 
pendent societies. It is catholic, it is one. From 
this unity, which again I have no occasion to prove, 
it results that whatever relationship an individual holds 
to any part, he holds also to the catholic body. He 
that is baptized is not baptized into the membership 
of any particular church, but into that of the body of 
Christ, the church diffusive, the catholic church. 
What privileges a man enjoys in one part of the 
church, to the same is he entitled throughout the 
whole ; so is it also with all the sacerdotal relation- 
ships. It is a point which I presume will not be 
denied by him who doth not deny the catholicity of 
the church, that the character imprinted by the impo- 
sition of hands — the sacerdotal power in all its grades- 
is unconnned. Deacon, priest, or bishop, the indi- 
vidual is ordained as such for the vjhole, and not for 
any portion of the church of Christ. If a common, 
it is an erroneous opinion, that a bishop when ordained 
is ordained for the diocese over which he is thereafter 
to exercise his jurisdiction. The ordinal of our own 



20 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



is in accordance with the example of every true branch 
of the catholic church, from the earliest period to the 
present time. 6 Receive,' it saith, ' the Holy Ghost y 
for the office and work of a bishop in the church of 
God.' Is the church of God the particular church 
of which he is speedily to take charge ? The church 
of God is the catholic church ; and of this is he ap- 
pointed a bishop. With this view of the subject agree 
the original commission and the divine command. In 
that commission, 4 As my Father hath sent me, so send 
I you? and in that command, ' Go ye into all the 
world and preach the gospel to every creature? there 
is no location assigned the apostles and their suc- 
cessors for the exercise of their powers. That loca- 
tion was a subsequent ordinance of the church — -was 
an ecclesiastical regulation, which convenience ren- 
dered necessary, which could not, as it did not, inju- 
riously affect the power and prerogatives of the bishops 
attached to them as individuals, and accompanying 
them wherever they went, throughout the catholic 
world. The church was given by her divine Head 
to the apostles and their successors — may I be per- 
mitted so to speak — in a coparcenary. The episco- 
pacy is a diffusive office, which lies in the whole 
college of bishops, according to the golden maxim of 
St. Cyprian, Episcopatus unus est cujus a singulis 
in solidum pars tenetur. There is but one bishopric 
in the church, and every bishop has an undivided por- 
tion of it." 

These are unquestionably sound scriptural views. 
And little did the writer think, I apprehend, when he 
expressed them in this forcible language, that he was 
showing the defective character of the commission 
which Bishops White, Provost, and Madison received 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



21 



from the archbishop of Canterbury, as well as of the 
commission which they give to those whom they or- 
dain, by limiting them, one and all, in the exercise of 
their powers to those countries not under the juris- 
diction of Great Britain. Truth will carry a man 
away from the landmarks of sectarianism, when a 
writer gives himself up to its influence, unfettered by 
the chains of human invention. Here, indeed, is a 
human regulation which, according to the doctrine of 
this writer, compels them to violate an express com- 
mand of the Lord Jesus Christ, given, as they contend, 
to the apostles and their successors in office to the 
end of time, which, this writer avers, the bishops them- 
selves have no right to disannul or lay aside — and yet 
these very pretended successors of the apostles did 
agree to contravene it at their ordination, and to fulfil 
which they are not allowed to commission those whom 
they consecrate to office, either as deacons, priests, 
or bishops ! 

After all this confession of their contravention of 
that very commission of which they predicate their 
authority to occupy the chair of succession, they have 
the unaccountable arrogance to set up an exclusive 
claim to be the true apostolic church ! Let one of 
their ministers, though he be a " catholic bishop," a 
" bishop of the whole church,'' pass the lines into 
Canada, to the West Indies, to India, or to any part 
of the British dominions, and he is stripped of his 
priestly robes, robbed of his episcopal mitre, and is 
not allowed even to preach the gospel, unless he do 
it as a simple layman, or go into a dissenting meeting 
house ! Should we any more hear of the apostolic 
character of this church, and that she alone possesses 
the true marks of " an original church of Christ," after 



22 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



being thus stabbed to her vitals by one of her sons ? 
Let the reader recollect that this " Churchman" is a 
strenuous advocate for high church principles, is pub- 
lished under the sanction and patronage of the bishop 
of New-York, and is a pleader for all the pretensions 
of those who condemn all orders and ordinances not 
administered by those who have received their com- 
mission in a direct lino from the apostles : and the 
article is written, too, by a man who is advocating the 
doctrine that all the power in the church, even that 
of legislation, was committed by Jesus Christ to the 
twelve apostles, and through them to a third order in 
the church to the end of time : so entirely committed 
to them, that their calling their presbyters to delibe- 
rate with them in making canons is altogether an act 
of grace. He will, I trust, at least hereafter, allow 
that in the particular herein deprecated, they have de- 
parted from the original church of Christ. 

These two things, therefore, the making the episco- 
pacy to depend on the selection of a single layman^ 
himself an assumed head of the church, thus secu- 
larizing the Christian ministry, and then restricting the 
labors of this ministry to a small portion of the globe — - 
for in none of the dependencies of Great Britain, any 
more than in Great Britain herself, are the ministers 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church allowed to offi- 
ciate in the churches of the establishment— are suffi- 
cient of themselves to destroy this boasted claim to 
be the exclusive church of Jesus Christ. 

Whether the Methodists ever separated from the 
Church of England or not, together with some other 
matters connected with this subject, and growing out 
of the above assertion, I shall reserve for another time. 
Sorry I am to be compelled, from the circumstances, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



23 



to speak or write on this subject. For the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, I have always felt something more 
than mere respect. But when I see such unfounded 
claims set up, and bandied about in the public prints, 
with such seeming contempt for those who presume 
to dissent from them, I cannot but feel it a duty to 
show their utter futility. Now that efforts are making 
to spread the gospel of our common salvation to the 
ends of the earth, by the united instrumentality of all 
denominations of evangelical Christians, why should 
the breach be widened between any of them, by the 
utterance of those things which tend naturally to alien- 
ate affection ? Though we have no wish to contend 
with others on those debateable points about which 
the Protestant world have ever been less or more di- 
vided, yet we cannot consider it a duty to yield with 
silent obsequiousness to be thus " unchurched" by 
those who have no stronger reasons for an originality 
of church character. It is much more important, in 
my estimation, to exemplify the purity of true religion 
in our doctrine, spirit, and conduct, than it is to con- 
tend for mere forms and ceremonies. Those, how- 
ever, who drive us to this last alternative, by such 
sweeping assertions as those at the head of this arti- 
cle, must bear the consequences resulting from the 
discussion. 



24 



A>~ ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST, 



NUMBER II. 

Functions of ministers should be confined to no place — Secular 
headship of the church unscriptural — The Methodists did not se- 
parate from the Protestant Episcopal Church, nor from the Church 
of England — The Methodist Episcopal Church organized before 
the Protestant Episcopal Church — The Protestant Episcopalians 
separated, in fact, from the English Church — Methodists left to 
provide for themselves — Descended from regular presbyters— As- 
sumptions of Pro Ecclesia unchurch all who dissent from him. 

In my former communication on this subject, I 
produced two facts to show that the Church of Eng- 
land and the Protestant Episcopal Church had both 
departed from apostolic and primitive usage ; the 
former by investing a layman with the power of select- 
ing and appointing bishops ; and the latter in suffering 
itself to be restricted in the exercise of ministerial 
functions. Were those restrictions confined simply to 
the exercise of the episcopal functions, they might not 
be so objectionable : for there is no absolute call for 
the exercise of these, either for a valid ministry, or for 
preaching the gospel: but the objection lies with most 
oppressive weight against thus circumscribing the 
ministers of religion in preaching the gospel of our 
salvation : and therefore furnishes conclusive proof that 
so far this church has departed from the " original 
church of Christ :" it is not apostolical and primitive, 
in this particular, at least. 

I might have brought another objection against the 
Church of England. This same church, after de- 
claring one of the most profligate and tyrannical 
princes* that ever disgraced a throne the head of the 

* 1 need hardly inform the reader that I allude to Henry 
VIII., whose libidinous desires so governed his decisions as 
to lead him alternately to murder and the most lascivious 
indulgence, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 25 

church ! and making this secular headship here- 
ditary, whether in male or female issue ! constituted 
these bishops, thus made, a part of the national legis- 
lature, permanently and ex officio such ! Will Pro 
Ecclesia bring a parallel to this in any age of the 
Christian church before Constantine usurped the 
powers of the church over the heads of his pliant and 
courteous bishops ? When he has tried his skill 
upon this point, and presented us the parallel — such 
a one as will fully satisfy either himself or his 
bishop — I will present him with a few more contrasts 
between the Church of England and the " original 
church of Christ," for the trial of his patience and 
skill in searching into the ancient records of the 
church, 

And as the American episcopate was received from 
the hands of these secularized bishops, so far as its 
validity is made to rest on the authority thus derived, 
it is doubted whether it, of itself, conveys any thing 
special to entitle it to an exclusive claim to a primitive 
character. It is hoped, however, that Pro Ecclesia 
will not have the imprudence and temerity to urge 
this point to make out the parallel between the 
primitive church and his own, lest he force it beyond 
what he might wish, so as to involve the question 
whether such a manifest departure from apostolic 
visage is at all conformable to the original church of 
Christ. 

The next question to be examined is, whether the 
Methodists ever " separated from the Church of Eng- 
land." It is well known that the Wesleyan Metho- 
dists, in England, have never to this day formally 
separated from that church, but consider themselves 
among its members and stanch friends ; so much so 

2 



26 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

that they have been invited, as I understand, to 
amalgamate their ministry with that of the church. 

Well, have the Methodists in this country separated 
from the Protestant Episcopal Church ? I answer, 
No — for they were never united with that church. 
So far from this, the Methodist Episcopal Church 
was organized, and their ministers consecrated before 
the Protestant Episcopal Church had an existence — 
at a time, I believe, when there was not a single 
bishop of that church in this country : for Dr. Coke 
arrived in New- York on the third of November 1784, 
eleven days before Bishop Seabury was consecrated 
to that office, by the nonjuring bishops of Scotland ; 
and on the 25th of December following, the General 
Conference assembled in Baltimore, at which time the 
Methodist Episcopal Church was organized. But 
even allowing that Bishop Seabury had arrived on the 
continent — which seems very improbable — the Pro- 
testant Episcopal Church was not organized until 
three years afterward. The first general convention, 
preparatory to a special and an independent organiza- 
tion, was held in the city of Philadelphia in 1785, 
and it was not before the year 1787 that the terms 
of agreement, or the constitutional compact of that 
church was ratified ; nor was the church fully 
authorized to exercise the full powers of an inde- 
pendent body until 1790, when Bishop Madison, a 
clergyman of Virginia, was consecrated to the episcopal 
office by the archbishop of Canterbury. For though 
Bishops Provost and White had been consecrated in 
1787, they were not allowed to consecrate others to 
the episcopal office until there were three regular 
bishops, constituted such by receiving their ordination 
from the hands of English bishops. Properly speak- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 27 



trig, therefore, the Protestant Episcopal Church was 
not fully organized,, by the possession of entire episco- 
pal powers, until six years after the organization of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. Hence we never 
separated from that church. And if priority of ex- 
istence gives priority of right, we claim the birth-right, 
and may therefore demand somewhat of a filial rela- 
tionship from the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

Did we separate from the Church of England ? So 
far as we were connected with it we did. This con- 
nection, however, in this country, was merely nominal. 
That church had, indeed, no existence here at this 
time. With the annihilation of the civil power of 
Great Britain in this country, fell all ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction. Many of the clergy, during the revo- 
lution, being tories, had fled to England, some had 
accepted of military offices, and others of them were 
fit for any thing beside the clerical office. There 
was, therefore, no English Church, claiming spiritual 
jurisdiction in the country. How could we separate 
from that which had no real existence ! As we shall 
see hereafter, the Methodists were left to take care 
of themselves in the best way they could. 

But even allowing that we did, in a formal manner, 
separate, what did we more than our younger sister? 
Did not they also form a separate organization, dif- 
fering as much from the Church of England, as we 
do from them, if indeed not more ? And if the mere 
act of separation has vitiated the church in one case, 
has it not also in the other ? 

But, perhaps, Pro Ecclesia will reply, that though 
they formed a separate organization, leaving out some 
articles of religion, abridging and altering others, and 
Inserting new ones, as well as altering and abridging 



28 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

some of the prayers, yet they have preserved the line 
of succession unbroken by receiving episcopal conse- 
cration from the English bishops. The full considera- 
tion of this objection, I must reserve for another article. 
I will therefore only observe here, that if any depend- 
ence is to be placed on this line of succession, we have 
it as well as they — with only this difference— ours 
descended to us from presbyters never secularized by 
having been incorporated with a co-ordinate branch 
of the civil legislature — theirs from bishops selected 
by a layman, and acting under a law which obliged 
them to disfranchise the very men they consecrated 
from both their episcopal and clerical office, whenever 
they came under the shadow of that church on which 
they are dependant for their official existence. 
Whether this circumstance conveys any superior 
official dignity on the men who were consecrated, I 
will leave to their deliberate judgment. For my own 
part, I should greatly prefer an authority received 
from such men as John Wesley, and those associated 
"with him, under the circumstances in which it was 
conferred, than if I had received it from the hands of 
the archbishop of Canterbury, under the circum- 
stances before detailed. As before said, however, 
this branch of the question deserves more considera- 
tion than I can devote to it in this communication. 
In the meantime, I must be permitted to ask Pro 
Ecclesia to prove the originality of his church, from 
a comparison of it with the primitive church, in some 
of its peculiar rites and ceremonies, as prescribed in its 
Canons and Book of Common Prayer. In doing this 
he must give us chapter and verse, either from the 
Holy Scriptures, or from the apostolic fathers of the 
first and second centuries, " without note or comment." 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 29 

Let no one rashly conclude that these remarks are 
made in a captious spirit. I have no wish to offer 
any indignity to the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
which is estimable on more accounts than one. But 
when such high claims to official dignity and exclusive 
canonicalness are set up, and echoed from year to 
year with an assurance apparently indicative of a belief 
that they are incontrovertible, it is time that their 
fallacy was detected and exposed, not by mere asser- 
tion, but by an appeal to facts and arguments, derived 
from an unquestionable source. Is Pro Ecclesia 
aware that his assumptions exclude from the com- 
munion of the church the entire body of Protestants 
who hold to the validity of presbyterial ordination ? 
That thereby all baptisms and the ordinance of the 
Lord's Supper, which are administered by ministers 
other than those who are episcopally ordained, in his 
sense of the word, are rendered null and void ? And 
is he prepared for such a wide-sweeping denunciation 
as this ? Does he persuade himself that this claim 
will be quietly yielded to him by all these deno- 
minations ? Is he not, moreover, aware that the 
position he has taken will expose him to be driven 
back into the precincts of " mother church" before he 
can successfully resist the onsets of his adversaries ? 
Leaving him to answer these questions in any way he 
may think reconcilable with truth and Christian 
charity, I close by a devout aspiration that He who 
is the proper Head of the church may so dispose the 
hearts of his servants as to induce them to contend 
more " earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
saints," than for less substantial matters. 



30 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



NUMBER III, 

Wesley's motives vindicated — True reasons of his conduct ii& 
organizing the Methodist Episcopal Church — Objections obvi- 
ated — True motive stated— Inconsistencies of his opponents — Dis- 
ingenuous thrust of Junius — Wesley condemned unjustly — His 
opponents judged him by themselves — Proved from their owr* 
words. 

In my last I endeavored to show that we never 
separated from the Protestant Episcopal Church, but 
that we had a prior existence. Those, however, who 
wish to impugn the motives of the excellent men who 
were instrumental in the organization of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, have said that they were hurried 
into this transaction from a fear that it would not be 
accomplished before the return of Bishop Seabury, 
who had been in England for some time soliciting 
consecration from the English bishops, and who, being 
refused his application there, received it from the 
bishops of Scotland. All this, say the chroniclers of 
these transactions, must have been known to Mr. Wes- 
ley ; and therefore he despatched Dr. Coke with haste 
that he might be beforehand with the Protestant Episco- 
palians. All this, as I shall, I think, be able to show> 
is mere suspicion, grounded upon no other evidence 
than what arises from suspecting others of being actu- 
ated by similar motives with ourselves. 

But, that my readers may have a proper view of 
this subject, I must be permitted to quote a little from 
a late work published in this city, by an author from 
whom we were led to expect, if not brotherly kind- 
ness, at least an impartial regard to justice. Speak- 
ing of the organization of the Methodist Church, Dr. 
Hawks, in his History of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in Virginia, says ; — ■ 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



31 



" If the object of Mr. Wesley was to secure to 
America the episcopate, the course pursued was ren- 
dered unnecessary, by existing circumstances. Dr. 
Seabury, of Connecticut, had been nearly two years 
in England soliciting episcopal consecration ; and in 
consequence of difficulties^ arising entirely from the 
English law, was on the point of going to Scotland 
to be consecrated there, at the very moment when Mr. 
Wesley laid hands on Dr. Coke : and it cannot be 
supposed that Mr. Wesley was ignorant of these facts, 
particularly as we find them to have been well known 
to his brother Charles." 

By this, it is more than insinuated that the moving 
object of Mr. Wesley was to occupy the field of episco- 
pal labor in America before it should be taken pos- 
session of by another, and thus the spirit of rivalry is 
introduced to account for the transactions of the 
Methodists. I have often wondered, w r hen I have 
read strictures upon the conduct of Wesley, with what 
facility the writers bring in wrong motives, secular 
policy, and the spirit of unholy rivalship, to account 
for his conduct. Had such known the man of whom 
they wrote, and had they been capable of appreciating 
his motives by impartially weighing and estimating 
his character, they never could have attributed either 
a base or an improper motive to any part of his con- 
duct. For my part, I believe he was incapable of 
being actuated by any unhallowed motive whatever. 
He set out with the purely simple desire of doing 
good in the name of the Lord, and from this desire I 
cannot believe he ever swerved for any one moment 
of his after life ; and hence, whatever means he was 
convinced would be promotive of this simple object, 
he adopted without hesitation, provided they were such 



32 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST* 

as were sanctioned by the precepts of Christianity. 
The whole machinery of Methodism, as such, both in 
Europe and America, was only incidental to his main 
plan of doing good to the souls and bodies of men ; 
for it no more entered into his original design to esta- 
blish an independent community, when he commenced 
his ministerial career, than it did to proclaim the inde- 
pendence of America ; for he was equally opposed 
to both, until the development of events constrained 
him to acknowledge the hand of God in their esta- 
blishment. 

The fact is> and Dr. Hawks ought to have known 
it before he undertook to account for the organization 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, that Mr. Wesley 
had long been urged, with the greatest earnestness, by 
his friends in America, to provide them with a regu- 
lar ministry, that they might no longer be destitute 
of the ordinances. So urgent had been many of the 
preachers and people on this subject, that some few 
of the preachers in Virginia had actually ordained one 
another, saying, during the war of the revolution, " As 
for this Wesley, we know not what has become of 
him ;" and it was with the utmost difficulty that Mr, 
Asbury, and other influential preachers, who were op- 
posed to these irregular proceedings, could restrain 
them, and finally succeed in bringing them back to 
reason and Scripture; and they at length succeeded, 
by holding out the just expectation that help would 
be afforded them in due time by Mr. Wesley, provided 
they waited patiently ; for none of them, who under- 
stood the subject, doubted his authority to furnish them 
with the relief they needed. 

Well; at length the war ended. The political 
power of Great Britain in this country was annihi- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



33 



lated — with that ceased all ecclesiastical jurisdiction. 
Most of the clergy of the English Church had left their 
flocks, some for one reason, and some for another. 
The independence of the United States had been 
acknowledged — the Methodist societies, which had 
greatly increased, even during the sanguinary conflict, 
were without the ordinances, and left to shift for them- 
selves, in the midst of obloquy and reproach. In these 
circumstances Mr. Wesley was applied to for advice — 
and having calmly considered the matter, in the fear 
of God, long since convinced that bishops and pres- 
byters, as to order, were the same in power, he laid 
aside those scruples which had arisen merely from pru- 
dential considerations — and having taken his decision, 
acted promptly, because he knew that the salvation 
of souls was at stake. To save these was his only 
object — and the event has fully justified his proceed- 
ings, and verified the predictions of his own mind, that 
in doing as he did in the premises, he was furnishing 
the poor sheep in this wilderness with pasture suited 
to their condition. This explains the whole. This 
was his single, his only object, and not to set up a 
rival episcopacy. 

But let us examine some other sayings of Dr. 
Hawks in reference to this transaction. In the first 
place, he says, speaking of the consecration of Dr. 
Coke : — 

" It was therefore the act of Mr. Wesley alone. 
It was an act, upon the propriety of which he took 
no counsel with his most intimate friends." 

•This appears to be asserted with a view to fix the 
responsibility of this act entirely upon Mr. Wesley, 
and in opposition to what he apprehended to be 
the wishes of his friends. Hereby his friends are 

2* 



34 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST* 



exonerated, and the blame attaches exclusively to Mn 
Wesley himself. He is the alone criminal ; yet in 
the very next page but one, this same writer, as if it 
were not enough to make Mr. Wesley act contra- 
dictory to himself, also contradicts his own most solemn 
asseveration, in the following language . — 

"With an intellect enfeebled by the weight of 
fourscore and two years, he was seduced, by those 
who would use his vast influence for purposes of their 
own, into the adoption of a plan which the better 
judgment of his more vigorous understanding had 
more than once rejected. It is believed to have been 
the contrivance of a few individuals, who took the 
advantage of the infirmities of age, to procure from 
the dying ruler a decree which should transmit the 
sceptre to themselves. 5 * 

In the first paragraph, Wesley is censured for not 
consulting with his friends — for acting on his own 
judgment exclusively. In the second, which relates 
to the same transaction, his once "vigorous under- 
standing" is prostrate, and he plays into the hands of 
some ambitious favorites,. w T ho> took Ihe advantage of 
an infirm old man, that they might hereafter have the- 
honor of wielding the sceptre of a Methodist bishop ! 
Surely the charity of Dr. Hawks, in this instance, 
got the better of his understanding, or he would not 
have allowed his apology so flatly to contradict his 
censure. Before this discussion closes, I hope to be 
able to convince the worthy rector of St. Thomas, 
that Wesley evinced, in the transactions- now under 
consideration, a maturity of judgment and a purity of 
intention which should commend him to the favorable 
regards of such enlightened minds and fervent spirits 
as adorn and actuate such men as Dr. Hawks* For 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



35 



sure I am, that nothing short of inattention to the 
character and conduct of Wesley, would allow a man 
who manifests the zeal in the cause of Christ which 
distinguishes the writer who has drawn forth these 
animadversions, to utter any thing disrespectful to his 
character, and more especially such a severe and 
satirical inuendo as that w T hich dropped from the pen 
of Junius. Under this conviction, I cannot but believe 
that the day is not distant w r hen John Wesley will be 
revered as profoundly by the evangelical clergy of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, as he has been hated 
and persecuted by the lukewarm and profane, whether 
within or without the pale of the church. 

In the meantime, there is another moss disingenuous 
thrust at the character of John Wesley in the book 
before me. In the course of the revolutionary con- 
test, Mr. Wesley, w 7 hose loyalty to his king and 
country was proverbial, thinking the Americans were 
wrong in taking up arms against their sovereign, wrote 
a " Calm Address" to them, in which he severely 
censures the Americans, and attempts to justify the 
mother country. This attracted the gaze of the 
celebrated Junius, than whom England never saw a 
writer at once uniting in himself more keenness of 
satire, acuteness of argument, and malevolence of 
feeling. It is well known to those who have read 
his letters, that* for personal invective, for ridiculous 
caricature, and for the manifestation of individual 
hatred, he is not surpassed in the annals of English 
literature. Mr. Wesley had wounded him. His 
radical blood was disturbed — and, turning upon his cle- 
rical antagonist with all his accustomed malevolence, 
shielded as he was by the concealment of his name, 
he hurled at Wesley the following unmerited rebuke : — 



36 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST* 

" You have forgotten the precepts of your Master, 
that God and mammon cannot be served together. 
You have one eye upon a pension, and the other 
upon heaven ; one hand stretched out to the king, the 
other raised up to God. I pray that the first may 
reward, and the last forgive you." 

This passage is quoted by Dr. Hawks with ap- 
parent approbation. It is another evidence that neither 
he nor his author understood Mr. Wesley ; for a more 
manifest libel upon that holy man's character could not 
well be uttered than this of Junius. Mr. John Wesley 
seeking for a pension ! The slander is too gross to 
need refutation. He striving to serve God and mam- 
mon ! His whole life contradicts the base imputation. 
Why then should an author, who, if I am rightly 
informed, professes much love and friendship for the 
Methodists — and, indeed, in this very book, says, thai 
" It is, at least, pleasant to indulge the hope that the 
day may yet come, when they" (the Protestant and 
Methodist Episcopal Churches) " shall again be one," 
— I say, why should he lend the influence of his good 
name to perpetuate such a vile imputation upon the 
character of one of the most holy, wise, conscientious, 
and diligent — and may I not add, evangelical men, the 
Church of England ever saw ? Can he persuade 
himself that we are so ignorant of the character of 
Wesley, and of the arguments by which his conduct 
in this affair is to be justified, that he can make us sick 
of the one by such slander, and forsake the other from 
a hopelessness of an honorable defence f Will he 
attempt to force us into a confession of our weakness, 
and to make us ashamed of the founder of our church 
by loading his character with reproach ? 

But I return to the idea with which this commenced ; 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



37 



namely, that Mr. Wesley was induced to hasten the 
consummation of his plan for the American Methodists 
for fear that others would occupy the field before him. 
I have already suggested that this imputation could 
have no other foundation than a suspicion engendered 
in the breasts of those who feel the power of such 
motives themselves. I have not said this unadvisedly. 

In looking over the late Bishop White's Memoirs 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, I find a detailed 
account of the difficulties and delays which arose in 
the way of the English prelates, in granting the 
American episcopate, by the consecration of the Rev. 
Messrs. Provost and White. While this business 
was pending, the good offices of men of distinction 
were used to further the desired object. Among 
others was that of Granville Sharpe, Esq., who in a 
letter to the archbishop of Canterbury, holds the 
following language : — 

" An immediate interference is become the more 
necessary, not only on account of the pretensions of 
Dr. Seabury, and the nonjuring bishops of Scot- 
land, (to which, however, I hope my letters will have 
given a timely check,) but also to guard against the 
presumption of Mr. Wesley and other Methodists ; 
who, it seems, have sent over some persons under the 
name of superintendents, with an assumed authority 
to ordain priests, as if they were really invested with 
episcopal authority." 

Here the archbishop is urged to expedite the 
business of conferring the episcopate upon the 
American applicants to countervail the influence of 
Mr. Wesley and the Methodists, whose labors had 
been so abundantly blessed on this continent. Now 
could those who impute such exceptionable motives 



38 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



to Mr. Wesley, in the affair of ordaining Dr. Coke, 
bring as tangible proof as the above in support of their 
assertions, they would have some ground for them. 
" An immediate interference" is solicited from the 
archbishop, not because souls are perishing " for lack 
of knowledge," but because Mr. Wesley and the 
Methodists had already organized a church in this- 
country, and their " assumed authority" must be put 
down. 

Providence permitting, I shall in my next examine 
the question, whether Mr. Wesley was justified, from 
Scripture precedent, and from the practice of the 
primitive fathers, in adopting measures for the or- 
ganization of the Methodist societies- in this country 
into an independent church. 



NUMBER IT. 

Terms bishop and presbyter signify the same order — This 
compatible with distinction of office — This view supported, 1. 
From Scripture ; % From the fathers : Clemens Romanus, Po- 
lycarp, Irenaus r Cyprian, Jerome — Stillingfleet — Explanation of 
the words bishop and presbyter — Distinction between order and 
office illustrated — Foundation of episcopal assumptions — These 
should be guarded against. 

In my last I promised to examine the o A uestion r 
whether Mr. Wesley acted in accordance with apos- 
tolic and primitive practice in the measures he adopted 
to organize the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 
order to settle this question, we must appeal to the 
Scriptures and the usage of the primitive church. 
From these authorities we think we are justified m 
laying down these propositions : — 

1. That the terms bishop and presbyter,, or elder 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



39 



signified in the primitive church, the same order of 
ministers. 

2. That to them was committed, under the super- 
intendence of the apostles and evangelists, the govern- 
ment of the church, the ordaining of ministers, and 
the administration of the ordinances. 

3. That Mr. Wesley being a presbyter, had a rights 
in conjunction with other presbyters who were asso- 
ciated with him in the act of consecration, to set 
apart others to the same office, and even, if he saw 
fit, to create a superior minister. 

For the support of the first proposition, our appeal 
is first to the Scriptures, and secondly to the primitive 
fathers. It is stated in the proposition that the terms 
bishop and presbyter signify the same person or order ~ 
There was, however, as it appears, this difference- — the 
term bishop was a title of office signifying overseer, and 
the word presbyter referred to the order r including all 
who were exalted to the order of elders or presbyters in? 
the church ; and hence, though an elder or presbyter 
might not be a bishop or overseer, an overseer must be 
a presbyter, for none but presbyters were admitted to 
the office of overseer. This may account for these 
persons being indifferently called elders, presbyter s r 
and bishops, or overseers ; they were called elders of 
presbyters because none were generally consecrated 
to that order but those who had acquired wisdom by 
a long experience in the things of God : they were 
called bishops or overseers when appointed to some 
special oversight in the church, with somewhat of an 
extended jurisdiction. 

In support of this view of the subject, we refer the 
reader to Acts xx, 17, 28, where St. Paul addresses 
himself to the eiu&Koszoi* which are calkd in. our trans*- 



40 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



lation elders in verse 17, and overseers in verse 20 ? 
a proof this that these men had the oversight of the 
church at that time, and that there were a plurality of 
them in the city of Ephesus. They could not, there- 
fore, have been diocesan bishops, unless we absurdly 
suppose that there were several dioceses in one city. 
Hence it follows most conclusively that those de- 
nominated elders or presbyters were the same as those 
denominated bishops. 

Here I cannot but notice an important concession 
of Dr. Chapman, in his sixth sermon on the " Ministry, 
Worship, and Doctrines of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church," — some of whose positions I shall more par- 
ticularly canvass hereafter — in which he attempts to 
prove that bishops were an order superior to presbyters. 
His words are : — 

" Many bishops in a single place at the same 
moment, would have given no slight color to the idea 
of their being of the like order with presbyters." 
And does he doubt whether there were " many bishops 
in a single place at the same moment ?" He cer- 
tainly does, for he adds, " the undeviating evidence of 
there being rightfully only one, establishes the per- 
manency of the apostolic office in that one beyond all 
reasonable contradiction." 

This is a most astounding declaration for a man 
who makes such large pretensions to a knowledge of 
the early history of the church. " The undeviating 
evidence of there being rightfully but one !" How 
could he say so in the face of this text in the Acts of the 
Apostles ? " Rightfully but one !" Were these men 
usurpers or " schismatics," who came at the bidding 
of the apostle ? Why did he not then rebuke or de- 
pose them ? So far from this, he tells them that the 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



41 



Holy Ghost had made them erricKOTTot, overseers or 
bishops; and there were "many" of them in that 
" single place at the same moment." If, therefore, 
Dr. Chapman take not back his concession, his entire 
argument is overthrown : for his appeal to writers 
of the third century can never invalidate this testi- 
mony of sacred Scripture recorded about the middle 
of the first century. Here, at Ephesus, in the 
apostolic days, in the very presence of one of the 
greatest of the apostles, were a plurality of bishops 
approved of by him, and declared to have been con- 
stituted such by the " Holy Ghost." Then must Dr, 
Chapman, on his own admission, allow that presbyters 
were of a " like order with bishops," and hence sur- 
render that branch of his argument into the hands of 
his antagonists.*" 

* By a writer in the " Churchman," who tells his readers 
that he is a Methodist preacher, and whose dull, prosing pieces,, 
made up as they principally are from scraps gathered from the 
incoherent Essays of Dr. Cook, another apostate from Metho- 
dism, are undeserving of any serious refutation, I have been 
accused of misrepresenting Dr. Chapman in the above quotation, 
because he does allow that the words bishop and elder were 
used interchangeably in the apostolic writings. I was aware 
that Dr. Chapman allowed this. But it by no means alters the 
force of his concession. He says, the undeviating evidence 
of there being rightfully only one " in a single place at the 
same moment." Now, what does he mean by this undeviating 
evidence ? Whence does he antedate I Does he, or does he 
not, go back to the age of the apostles 1 If he does, and places 
them in the episcopal chair, then his assertion is unsupported 
by the facts in the case, for there were no less than twelve of 
them, at first acting conjointly ', and not in separate dioceses. 
And so far were they from taking each one his diocese, that 
Paul and Barnabas, the latter of whom Dr. Chapman claims as 
an apostle, generally travelled and acted together. And who 
has not read the rebuke which St. Paul gave to St. Peter 
for his dissimulation 1 To which did the diocese of Antioch 



42 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



Whether, in after times, when the pride of episcopal 
dominion had supplanted that primitive simplicity 
which characterized the early officers of the church, 
a single bishop only was found 44 in the same place at 
the same moment," is another question ; and although 
it should be settled in the affirmative, it will make 
nothing in favor of the pretensions of modern diocesan 
episcopacy to apostolic usage and authority, while 
they derive their arguments from the early distinction 
between bishops and presbyters. But see the quota- 
tions which follow. 

Look we now at St. Paul's epistle to Titus, i, 5, 7, 
44 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst 
set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain 
elders in every city as I had appointed thee."— 44 For 
a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God." 
Here it is manifest that the same persons are called 
indifferently elder and bishop, evincing that, as to order, 
there is no difference. 

belong at this time, to Paul or Peter 1 Or was it common 
ground where either had a right, one as much as another, to 
exercise his episcopal functions 1 

But if Dr. Chapman does not go back to the age of the 
apostles for the commencement of his 44 undeviating evidence" 
then his assertion is equally erroneous, if he mean to say that 
there was rightfully but one in the bounds of what he calls a 
diocese ; for within such bounds there were, even to the third, 
and in some places to the fourth century, many bishops, each 
one having the charge of a single congregation. This 
undeviating evidence, therefore, turns out to be no evidence at 
all, but is contradicted by the concurrent testimony of sacred 
Scripture, and the primitive fathers, all of whom declare that 
diocesan episcopacy, which recognizes the authority of only one 
bishop over a number of congregations, was unknown to the 
primitive church. Hence, as the premiss of Dr. Chapman is 
without foundation, his argument built upon it is utterly over- 
thrown, and the Methodist preacher falls beneath it. 



AN ORIGINAL CHtTRCH OF CHRIST. 



43 



And that this is the true interpretation of the apostle's 
language is manifest from numerous quotations from 
the apostolic fathers. The quotations which I shall 
produce are taken chiefly from Lord King's Account 
of the Constitution, Discipline, and Worship of the 
Primitive Church. And that the reader may rely upon 
these as correct, I will remark, that the author has 
fully verified all his quotations by inserting the ori- 
ginals themselves in the margin of his book, which 
any reader of it may consult for himself.*" 

Clemens Romanus sometimes mentions many 
bishops in the church of Corinth, whom he also calls 
in other parts of his epistle presbyters. Thus he 
commands the Corinthians to be subject to their 
presbyters, calling them in one line cttlgkottoc, bishops 
or overseers, and in the second line after, npea6vTepoi, 
presbyters. So Polycarp exhorts the Philippians to 
be subject to their presbyters and deacons, by which 
he unquestionably meant the bishops, for they w r ere 

* I am aware that Slater has attempted a refutation of Lord 
Chancellor King's Account of the Primitive Church, and in a 
few particulars he may have succeeded ; nor am I pledged for 
all the conclusions which his lordship draws from the data 
which he adduces from the early writers of the church. The 
quotations speak for themselves, and every one is at liberty to 
make his own inferences. It appears evident, however, as I 
think I shall be able abundantly to show in the course of this 
discussion, that bishops and presbyters belonged to the same 
order of ministers* and that they possessed the original right 
of ordination, and of modelling the church according to the 
circumstances of time and place, so long as they did not 
transcend a known precept of Jesus Christ. The clamor 
which has been made about the absurdity of a body of ministers,, 
or any other body, collectively, constituting- an officer superior 
to themselves, is wholly without foundation, as it is a matter 
of every day's occurrence both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs, 
But this topic will be more fully noticed in another place.. 



44 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



the governors of the church. Ireneus, in his synodical 
epistle, twice calls Anicetus, Pius, Higynas, Teles- 
phorus, and Xistus, bishops of Rome, TrpecBvTepoi, 
presbyters. And those bishops who derived their 
succession from the apostles, he calls the presbyters 
of the church ; and whom Clemens Alexandrinus in 
one line calls the bishop of a certain city, a few lines 
after he calls the presbyter. 

The same titles are also given to them both. One 
of the descriptive appellations of a bishop is pastor, 
and Cyprian calls his presbyters pastors of the flock. 
Another was that of president, or one set over the 
people ; and this same father calls the presbyters 
presidents, as those who were set over the people. 
The bishops were also called rectors or rulers : and 
Origen calls the presbyters the governors of the 
people. 

But Clemens Romanus, in his Ancient Remains, is 
still more express upon this subject, in the following 
words : — " In the country and cities where the apostles 
preached, they ordained their first converts for bishops 
and deacons over those who should believe — and after 
referring to Isa. lx, 17, in support of his doctrine, he 
adds these remarkable words : — " The apostles fore- 
knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that contention 
would arise about the name episcopacy, and therefore, 
being endued with a perfect foreknowledge, appointed 
the aforesaid officers, (viz.) bishops and deacons, and 
left the manner of their succession described, that so 
when they died, other approved men might succeed 
them and perform their office." 

The following passage is from Ireneus, where he 
exhorts the people " to withdraw from those presbyters 
who serve their lusts, and having not the fear of God 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 45 

in their hearts, contemn others, and are lifted up with 
the dignity of their first session ; but to adhere to those 
who keep the doctrine of the apostles, and, with their 
presbyterial order, are inoffensive, and exemplary in 
sound doctrine, and a holy conversation, to the infor- 
mation and correction of others ; for such presbyters 
the church educates, and of whom the prophet saith, 
I will give thee princes in peace, and bishops in 
righteousness." 

These quotations from the Scriptures and from the 
primitive fathers, are quite sufficient for our purpose, 
as they make it most evident that those called bishops 
and presbyters were the same order of ministers. For 
the purpose, however, of removing all room for doubt 
upon this subject, I will present some quotations from 
Stillingfleet in reference to this point. After pro- 
ducing a passage from Jerome upon this subject, which, 
from its not being accurately understood by some of 
his commentators, had been quoted by those who con- 
tend for the divine right of bishops over and above 
presbyters, Stillingfleet remarks, " Is it imaginable that 
a man who had been proving all along the superiority 
of a presbyter above a deacon, because of his identity 
with a bishop in the apostles'* times, should at the same 
time say that a bishop was above a presbyter by the 
apostles' institution, and so directly overthrow all 
he had been saying before ?" — " such an inconsis- 
tency is scarce incident to a man of very ordinary 
esteem for intellectuals, much less such a one as 
Jerome is reputed to be. The plain meaning then 
of Jerome is no more but this : that as Aaron and his 
sons in the order of priesthood were above the Levites 
under the law, so the bishops and presbyters in the 
order of the evangelical priesthood are above the 



43 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



deacons under the gospel. For the comparison runs 
not between Aaron and his sons under the law, and 
bishops and presbyters under the gospel ; but between 
Aaron and his sons, as one part of the comparison 
under the law, and the Levites under them as the 
other, so under the gospel, bishops and presbyters 
make one part of the comparison, answering to Aaron 
and his sons in that wherein they all agree, (viz.) the 
order of priesthood, and the other part under the 
gospel is that of deacons, answering to the Levites 
under the law. The opposition then is not in the 
power of jurisdiction between bishops and priests, but 
between the same power of order, which is alike both 
in bishops and presbyters, according to the acknow- 
ledgment of all, to the office of deacons which stood in 
competition with them." 

Now I think the point is sufficiently established, 
that both the apostles themselves and the primitive 
fathers, did use the terms bishop and presbyter as 
convertible terms — that they were expressive of the 
same order of ministers in the church — and that, there- 
fore, the term bishop is not descriptive of an order 
superior to that of presbyter. 

But if this be so, it may be asked why these dif- 
ferent appellations were used to designate the same 
order of ministers ? The answer is very plain : 
Presbyter comes from TrpeaSv^, w r hich signifies a man 
somewhat advanced in life, and hence the Jeivish 
Sanhedrin were styled irpeo6vrepov, presbytery, because 
it was composed chiefly of elderly men ; and for the 
same reason those ministers in the Christian church 
who were admitted to the responsible office of elders, 
were called TrpeoSvrepoi, presbyters, because they were 
generally selected from among those deacons who, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 47 

from their laborious services in the church, and long 
experience in divine things, had acquired a wisdom 
and an influence to qualify them for a prudent 
government of the church. 

The word emoKomg, signifies simply an overseer, and 
is applied to any person to whom the oversight of any 
particular work was given, whether of a military, civil, 
or ecclesiastical character. Whenever any of these 
elders were appointed to a charge over the flock of 
Christ, they were termed overseers, simply to designate 
their official and responsible relation to the church. 
And as it frequently happened that there were a 
number of presbyters in the same city, as at Ephesus, 
whenever these were assembled together for counsel, 
it became necessary that some one of them should act 
as president or moderator for the time being ; and from 
his holding this office, he was by way of distinction 
denominated the overseer or bishop, because he exer- 
cised a sort of an oversight of the whole church in 
that particular place. It might frequently happen, 
also, that there were some of those presbyters not yet 
appointed to a particular charge in any department of 
the church, but acted as assistants to others ; and then 
those under whom they officiated, were their overseers 
or bishops, while those assistants themselves were 
distinguished simply as presbyters. 

We may see the same thing exemplified in our own 
and other churches in this day. On a district there 
are a number of presbyters or elders under the over- 
sight of another elder of the same order precisely, but 
who, for the time being, has an official superiority over 
those under his charge. The same may be said of a 
circuit, on which two elders or more are stationed, to 
one of whom is given the oversight of all the rest, 



48 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

ministers and people, although as to order, they are 
all the same ; and yet as to office, for the time being, 
the ruling elder holds the relation of an overseer or 
bishop, to his colleagues in the work. So a rector in 
the Protestant Episcopal Church may have one assist- 
ant or more, called in England curates, of the same 
order with himself, and yet he exercises such an over- 
sight over them, that he may be very fitly denominated 
their overseer or bishop. 

But this is more especially illustrated in our church 
by the travelling and local ministry, Here is a large 
number of local preachers, elders and deacons, having 
no special oversight, who are nevertheless, many of 
them at least, presbyters in the church ; and yet, in 
consequence of their not having any particular charge, 
cannot with propriety be denominated overseers or 
bishops — while the travelling elders, to whom the over- 
sight of the circuits is given, are the proper overseers 
of the flock of Christ. But will any man in his senses 
say, that because these local presbyters have no spe- 
cial oversight in the church, they are of an inferior 
order? or that because a man is a travelling pres- 
byter, he is of an order superior to a presbyter ? He 
is superior in office, but not in order. This is a dis- 
tinction necessary to be observed in order to under- 
stand the primitive organization of the Christian church. 

It is preposterous to infer that because a minister 
in the church is distinguished by different appellations, 
he is therefore of another order. Here is an elder or 
presbyter who has colleagued with him several other 
presbyters, and who, for the sake of convenience and 
an orderly conducting of business, has an oversight 
of them, and is thence designated as their overseer. At 
another time a society is called to transact some busi- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



49 



ness peculiar to its organization, and he is called to pre- 
side, and is on that account called their chairman or pre- 
sident. Up springs a novice, and stretches his throat, 
and cries out, " You have created another order of min- 
isters r Does he need any arguments to refute him ? 

So in the primitive church, from the circumstances 
in which they were placed, it frequently became ne- 
cessary, that they might conduct all things " decently 
and in order," to select one from among the presby- 
ters to preside in their councils, to give a direction to 
their proceedings, and, as Mosheim says, " to distribute 
among his colleagues their several tasks," — -and hence 
he was called their overseer — and hence also some 
have rashly concluded that these presbyters, so deno- 
minated, were a superior order of ministers. 

That this primitive practice laid the foundation for 
high episcopal pretensions, and ultimately led, by a 
very natural abuse of their authority, to the distinc- 
tions now so much insisted upon, I am willing to ad- 
mit, and hence the necessity of guarding against the 
encroachments of these high episcopal prerogatives, 
which had no place in the primitive church, among 
those who were equal in official dignity. That the 
apostles exercised a spiritual jurisdiction over the 
whole church, presbyters, deacons, and people, we 
grant, but that any lordly superiority was claimed by 
those denominated bishops, any farther than we have 
explained, is denied, on the authority I have already 
adduced. 

Perhaps it may be satisfactory to the reader to see 
in what sense this word is used in the Sacred Scrip- 
tures. The Greek word mtakcemfa comes from em, 
upon or over, and mono,, perfect middle voice, and this 
from the passive form of the verb eKetoficu, which 

3 



50 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



signifies to look at or inspect, and hence the verb 
the radical meaning of which is to oversee, 
to look diligently, or to superintend. The Hebrew 
verb np£3 (pequod) the verbal signification of which 
is, to visit, to take cognizance of, to take view of, to 
review, or to muster, is generally translated in the 
Septuagint by the above word, which means 

about the same thing. Our word bishop is of Saxon 
origin, bischop, and is supposed by the lexicographers 
to be a corruption of the Latin episcopus, as the lat- 
ter is most manifestly the Greek word Latinized. Its 
ambiguous import to the mere English reader is mani- 
fest to every thinking mind. 

Let us refer to a few passages of Sacred Scripture 
where this word occurs, and endeavor to ascertain the 
sense in which it is used, comparing, in the mean- 
time, the original with some of the most common ver- 
sions. In Gen. xxi, 1, we read rra nps mm, " And 
the Lord visited Sarah." Septuagint, nai nvpioc eneonefaro. 
Vulgate, Yisitavit autem Dominus Saram. French, 
Et L'Eternal visita Sara. Italian, E'l signora visito 
Sara. Spanish, Y visito el senor a Sara. In all 
these versions it will be perceived that the original, 
or verbal signification of the Hebrew root npD. is pre- 
served in the word visited ; the plain meaning of which 
is, the Lord visited or looked after Sarah, in order 
that his promise to her should have its fulfilment in 
due time. 

In Numbers xxxi, ]4, mp3 is rendered in our 
translation, officers — " And Moses was wroth with the 
officers of the host." In the Septuagint they are 
called eTTicKonoic (visiters or overseers.) Vulgate, tri- 
founis, (tribunes or keepers of the people's liberties.) 
French, captaines de l'armee (captains of the armies.) 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



51 



The Italian and Spanish about the same. These were 
military officers whom Moses had appointed over the 
several tribes of Israel, who were sent to war against 
the Midianites ; and yet they are called in the Greek 
translation by the same name by which the ministers 
of Christ's flock are designated ; manifestly because 
they were appointed to oversee or to superintend the 
people committed to their charge. 

In 1 Sam. xv, 2, vnpa is rendered in the English 
version, remember, and in the Septuagint ekSlktigcj, 
which signifies, I will punish. The Vulgate has it 
recensui, (I will muster, review, or rehearse.) The 
French says, Ainsi a dit l'Eternal des armees ; P ai 
rappale en ma memoire — (Thus saith the God of 
hosts, I have called to my memory.) The plain mean- 
ing of the passage is, I will visit upon Amalek the 
punishment which is due to him for his atrocities to- 
wards my people Israel — I will not forget him — im- 
plying a jealous superintendence over the interests of 
his people. 

In Nehemiah xi, 9, the same word is used to de- 
note both a civil and religious officer. — " And Joel, 
the son of Zichri was their TpD, (overseer.) Septua- 
gint, ettlukottoc erf avTsg, (bishop or overseer over them.) 
The Vulgate has given the word an easy translation ; 
propositus eorvm, (was put over them..) The French 
has also a similar rendering — commis sur eux, (put 
over them.) The Italian and Spanish the same. This 
Joel was an officer having both a civil and religious 
jurisdiction over those intrusted to his care, whose 
conduct he was to inspect, and to whose safe keeping 
they were committed. He was therefore held re- 
sponsible for their conduct. 

In Isaiah lx, 17, where the prophet is predicting 



52 



AX ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



the future accession of the Gentiles to the church un- 
der the gospel dipensation, it is said, " I will also 
make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteous- 
ness." Here the LXX. have rendered the words officers 
and exactors, by e-niGno-ovg (bishops or overseers) and 
apxQvrag, (chiefs or princes.) The Vulgate, visitati- 
onem, (visiters,) and prapositos, (overseers.) The 
French version has the most free translation of either — 
Et je ferai que la paix regnera sur toi, a la justice te 
gouvernera — And I will cause peace to reign over thee, 
and justice to govern thee. " Clement, in his first 
epistle to the Corinthians, commenting upon this text, 
says that it is a prediction respecting the government 
of the church under the gospel by the two offices of 
bishops and deacons, and gives it this rendering in 

Greek : Kara^Go rovg etugkottovc; avrov ev dLnaioGVvrj, nai 

Tovg dianovovg avrov ev tti-cl. I will appoint their over- 
seers in righteousness and their deacons in faith." 
See Park. Gr. and Eng. Lexicon. 

It is most manifest that in all the above places the 
word is used to designate a person who had been ap- 
pointed to take the oversight of any particular concern, 
whether military, civil, or ecclesiastical ; and it is so 
far from distinguishing a superior officer in either of 
these departments, that in most of the places cited it 
denotes a subordinate ; as in the case of those ap 
pointed by Moses, Num. xxxi, 14, and by Nehemiah, 
Neh. xi, 9, who w r ere subject to the authority and 
under the control of those supreme magistrates. 

In the numerous places where this word occurs in 
the Old Testament, whether as a verb or a noun, this 
radical signification is kept up, and implies uniformly 
a visiting or a visiter, either in kindness, with a view 
to take care of, to provide for, to superintend, to tw- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 53 



Sped, with an intent to regulate every thing amiss, or 
to reward for diligence ; or in vengeance, with a view 
to punish for any delinquency, after a proper inspec- 
tion of the conduct ; or yet more generally to take a 
special oversight of any particular concern, person or 
persons, business or thing. Let the reader who 
wishes to be more thoroughly convinced of this, con- 
sult the following passages, comparing the Hebrew 
(of those in the Old Testament,) with the Greek of 
the Septuagint, Latin Vulgate, and English transla- 
tions:—! Kings xx, 15; Ezek. xxx, 14; 1 Sam, xx, 
6 ; xxv, 15 ; Isa, xxxiv, 15 ; Jer. li, 27 ; Job xxxvi, 
23 ; xxxi, 14 ; Isa. xxxviii, 10 ; Psa. xxxi, 6 ; Gen. 
xxxix, 5 ; xli, 34 ; Jer. i, 10 ; xv, 3 ; Lev. xxvi, 16; 
1 Pet. ii, 25 ; Acts xx, 28 ; 1 Pet. v, 2 ; Phil, i, 1 ; 
1 Tim. iii, 2 ; Tit. i, 7 ; Heb. xii, 15. 

By an examination of these texts it will appear most 
evident that we can derive no argument from the name 
simply of these officers, respecting the powers with 
which they were invested. Let them then be called 
overseers, superintendents, or bishops- — though this lat- 
ter is to us of all others the most inappropriate — or 
inspectors, but let us not attribute powers to those 
mentioned in the New Testament, to which they were 
strangers in the apostolic days, nor attach such an im- 
portance to their office as to make them, jure divino, 
a third order in the church so essential that there can 
be no valid ordinances nor orders without them. 

From the above examples it will appear evident 
that this word was not at first used in a technical sense 
to designate an ecclesiastical officer at all ; but from 
its use and application in the Old Testament, the New 
Testament writers borrowed and applied it to desig 
nate those officers in the church who were appointed 



54 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



to take the oversight of its spiritual concerns ; and 
hence time and use have given sanction to the exclu- 
sive appropriation of the term to ministers of the gos- 
pel : while our opponents use it to represent one par- 
ticular grade of ministers, created such by a third 
consecration, and as expressive of an order essential 
to the very existence of a gospel church. It is in this 
latter sense chiefly that we object to its use and ap- 
plication, and not as expressing a superior officer for 
the sake of distinction merely in writing or conversation. 

The reason why this word bishop was retained in 
our version of the Bible, instead of the more simple 
and expressive term overseer or superintendent, will 
appear manifest from a little attention to the history 
of this translation. The bishops of the English church 
who revised Cranmer's Bible, retained this exotic word, 
no doubt, with a view to please their female sovereign, 
Queen Elizabeth, who succeeded to the headship of 
the church, and who thought her throne would be the 
more secure if supported by a church hierarchy, which 
should nearest resemble, in its institution and external 
order and ceremonies, the civil establishment. As 
this revision was carried on under the control of the 
high court of commissioners established by that des- 
potic princess, with Archbishop Parker, whose perse- 
cutions of the Puritans are of such notoriety as not to 
need a rehearsal here, at its head; and as the queen 
and her council displayed a partiality for the utmost 
pomp and splendor in the clergy and the ceremonies 
of religion ; they doubtless made their version of the 
Bible, in all those places which speak of the ministers 
of religion, favor their high, church, notions as far a& 
they could with any show of consistency. And as 
the controversy between the court party and the Pu- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 55 

ritans, the latter being by far the most weighty in re- 
spect to talent and piety, turned chiefly on the powers 
of the Christian ministry, clerical robes, and the pom- 
pous ceremonies which were considered the relics of 
popery, the former were induced to make the Bible 
speak, in reference to these subjects, as much in their 
favor as possible. 

Afterward, when King James ordered a new trans- 
lation of the Bible, he instructed the translators to 
deviate as little as possible from the " Bishops' Bible," 
assigning as a reason, at the Hampton Court confer- 
ence, for the retention of such words as bishop instead 
of elder, and church instead of congregation, " No 
bishop no king." But it is doubted whether the king 
himself, or any of his advisers, thought at that time 
that this word designated an officer in the church 
made so by a triple consecration, in such a sense 
that there could be no true church nor valid adminis- 
trations without him. This doctrine sprung up by 
degrees afterward, and was advocated with a view to 
oppose the pretensions of the Puritans, and to check 
the progress of those principles of ministerial parity, 
and congregational equality, which, in the opinion of 
high-toned churchmen, threatened to undermine the 
throne and to shake the stability of the hierarchy. 
And thus to avoid the extreme of congregational equal- 
ity on the one hand, they ran into the extreme of ec- 
clesiastical despotism on the other. If we can find 
the happy medium of a scriptural government and ra- 
tional liberty, which lies at an equal distance from the 
two extremes, we shall not despair of rendering some 
good service to the cause of truth and righteousness. 

Notwithstanding, therefore, this abuse of the word 
bishop, and the pernicious influence it has exerted on 



56 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



the condition of the church and the world, we need 
not dispute but that the apostles left successors in the 
church, so far as its government is concerned, to 
whom a special oversight was given for particular 
purposes ; but I contend, at the same time, that what- 
ever authority they possessed, by virtue of consecra- 
tion by the hands of man, they derived it from the 
body of presbyters or bishops, to whom the right of 
ordination originally belonged, and from whom, under 
the higher sanction of Jesus Christ, the proper head 
of the church, even the Apostle Paul was indebted 
for his official standing. I merely mention this here 
to apprize my readers of the course intended to be 
pursued in conducting the present discussion. The 
whole proceeds upon this principle, — That while some 
things are prescribed by Jesus Christ and his apostles 
as essential to the purity and integrity of the church, 
others are left to be regulated as the exigencies of 
time, place, and circumstances shall dictate to be ex- 
pedient and suitable. 



NUMBER V. 

Powers of the ministry — Presbyters possessed the powers of 
ordination — First commission of the apostles — Consecration of 
St. Paul — This was a formal induction into the order of the min- 
istry — A dilemma for those who deny this — The doctrine proved 
from 1 Tim. iv, 14 — Dr. Chapman's concession — Triple consecra- 
tion not proveable — Same doctrine sustained by quotations from 
Firmillian, Tertullian, Eutychius, Cranmer, bishop of St. Asaph, 
Therelby and Cox, Mr. Francis Mann, Bishop G. Dowman, Stil- 
lingfleet, Gieseler, Bishop White— First link in the chain of suc- 
cession wanting. 

Having proved that bishops and presbyters were 

the same order of ministers in the primitive church, 

it remains for us to inquire, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 5? 

2. Into the powers possessed by them. In eon- 
ducting this part of the discussion, it is important that 
we should define what is meant by powers. We 
mean, then, simply, ecclesiastical powers — such as 
are peculiar to ministers of the Lord Jesus, and 
are necessary for the integrity, government, and well 
being of the church of Christ. My present object is 
to prove that these pres-byters originally possessed the 
power of ordination. 

To maintain this position, our first appeal is to the 
Sacred Scriptures. That the apostles received their 
first commission from Jesus Christ, the proper foun- 
dation and head of the church, I suppose none will 
question ; and hence we have no account, that I am 
aware of, that any of those " twelve," first chosen by 
Jesus Christ, were ever ordained by other than him- 
self. To them he therefore said, " Ye have not chosen 
me ; but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that 
ye should bring forth much fruit." So it is said by 
St. Mark, " And he ordained twelve, that they should 
be with him, and that he might send them forth 
to preach." Whether any particular ceremony was 
used by Jesus Christ in ordaining these " twelve" to 
the sacred office to which they were called, we are 
not informed ; nor is it, I apprehend, a matter of any 
consequence for us to know, since whatever Jesus did 
as to their ordination, was done by him as the su- 
preme Head of his church, and not in the ordinary 
method. 

The Apostle Paul, however, was not of this num- 
ber; and although he was as much called of Jesus 
Christ to preach his gospel, and to perform all the 
functions of an apostle, as were the " twelve," yet as 
he was, as he expresses it, "born out of due time," 

3* 



58 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



that is, after the Lord Jesus had ascended to heaven, 
he could not have been ordained in the same manner 
that they were ; and hence we read of his consecra- 
tion hy the hands of prophets and teachers. " Now 
there were in the church that was at Antiocb, certain 
prophets and teachers, as Barnabas, and Simeon that 
was called Niger, and Lucius of Gyrene, and Manaen 
which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, 
and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fast- 
ed, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and 
Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them. 
And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their 
hands on them, they sent them away," Acts xiii, 1—3. 
I know of no other account of the consecration of Su 
Paul, by the hands of men, to the work of the minis- 
try ; and it is somewhat remarkable that not one of 
"the twelve" assisted in this work; whence we may 
conclude, that others beside fehe apostles were in the 
habit of administering the ceremony of ordination* 
This is furthermore a proof of what I before stated, 
that a body of bishops oe presbyters, as h is to be 
presumed these were such, though they are not desig- 
nated by that appellation, might consecrate a minister 
to an office superior to themselves.. 

I am aware that Bishop Onderdonk, and otlter high 
Episcopalians, deny that this was a regular consecra- 
tion of St.. Paul to the Christian ministry, but only a 
sort of installation to a special missionary work. To> 
sustain this position, they tell us that St. Paul was 
called and ordained by Jesus Christ himself, and there- 
fore needed not to be set apart by the hands of men.. 
But, is not every true minister called by the Holy 
Spirit to his sacred work, and, in this sense, ordained 
by Christ himself? It is certain that St. Paul was 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



59 



never otherwise ordained by Jesus Christ than by 
being thus inwardly called by the Holy Spirit, for he 
never had any personal intercourse with Jesus while 
the latter sojourned among men, after the conversion 
of the former to the Christian faith. How then could 
he have been otherwise ordained by Jesus Christ, than 
by that voice from heaven, which assured him that 
" he had appeared unto him for this purpose, to make 
him a minister and witness of those things which he 
had seen and heard 

But, even allowing all that is contended for by the 
asserters of high episcopal power and prerogative, it 
militates not against the proposition for which I con- 
tend, namely, that the power of ordination was ori- 
ginally vested in the presbytery. It must be al- 
lowed, however, that here was all the H form and 
circumstance'' usually attendant upon the most formal 
consecration, if, indeed, it be not the very exemplar 
whence the manner of consecration is taken. They 

* According to the usages of the English and Protestant 
Episcopal Churches, three bishops are essential to render the 
ordination of another bishop valid. And this is in conformity 
to the practice of primitive times. Mow, whence did this prac- 
tice originate ! I know no precedent in Scripture, — no ex- 
ample upon record, except this consecration of the Apostle 
Paul. And I consider this no small evidence in favor of the 
position that this was so considered by the church at that time, 
and in the days immediately subsequent. 

There is, also, in this transaction, another particular, from 
which the orderly practice of having the candidates for orders 
presented to the ordainers by a third person may have been 
taken. In chapter ix, 27, it is said that " Barnabas took him 
and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how 
he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to 
him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name 
of Jesus.*' This introduction of the apostle was designed to> 
calm the fearful apprehensions of the disciples and apostles, by 



60 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



fasted, prayed, and laid their hands upon them, and 
then sent them away to preach to the Gentiles and to 
form churches. It is worthy of special notice,, and 
not a little confirmatory of the opinion that this was 
a regular consecration of St. Paul to the full ministry, 
that he set out immediately upon an extensive work, 
and was thereafter employed, not only ffi preaching 
the gospel, but in establishing and edifying churches ; 
in which peculiar work we do not find that he was 
employed before this time. For though immediately 
after his conversion he went away into Arabia, we 
have no account of w hM he did,, whether be was em- 
ployed in preaching the gospel, or was under the tui- 
tion of some skilful master in fitting himself more 
perfectly for the great work to which he had been 
called by the Holy Ghost.. The next we hear of him 
is his coming up to Jerusalem, when the fears of the 

assuring them that he was now wo-rfehy of" their confidence and 
fellowship. Whence, probably, arose the practice at the pre- 
sent time of having the candidates for orders presented by one 
of the elders present, in the following manner : — 

" I present unto, you these persons present to be ordained 
elders." Or, when a bishop is about to be consecrated, he is 
thus presented by two elders : — 

" We present unto yon this holy man to be ordained a 
bishop." 

In Acts xiii, % it is said, (t As they ministered unto the Lord, 
and fasted ; n so also in the regulations of our discipline respect- 
ing the manner of receiving preachers, it is said, u After solemn 
fasting and prayer" &c. 

I have adduced these particulars for the purpose of showing 
the high probability there is, that this induction of St. Paul into 
the ministry, was, as is stated in the text, the exemplar, whence 
the ceremonies now observed preparatory to the laying on of 
hands were taken : and that therefore they confirm the opinion 
that this was a regular and canonical consecration, performed 
in obedience to the command of the Holy Ghost. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



61 



disciples were excited at beholding him who had been 
such a furious persecutor of the Christians, and was 
introduced by Barnabas to the apostles, Peter and 
James, (see Acts ix, 26-30, and Gal. i, 19,) as one 
whom the Lord had called to be his apostle, and 
thereby calmed the apprehensions of the fearful disci- 
ples. Here, in consequence of the persecution raised 
against him on account of the bold manner m which 
he preached Jesus unto the u Grecians, * the brethren 
took him and conducted him to Tarsus, his native 
city. The very next account we have of St, Paul is 
the one above recited, when he came to Antioch in 
company with Barnabas, and, with him, was thus 
solemnly consecrated to the work of the ministry. 

Now, taking all these facts together, we have a 
plain narrative of the events of this part of St. PauFs 
history: — 1. Of his conversion. 2. His announce- 
ment of his faith in Christ to the Jews at Damascus. 
3. His departure to Arabia, where he spent probably 
about three years. 4. His assaying to join himself 
with the disciples at Jerusalem. 5. His introduction 
to Peter and James. 6. The bold manner in w T hich 
he preached Christ at Jerusalem, and the rancorous 
opposition of the Jews, and of his consequent secre- 
tion at Tarsus. 7. His next, appearance at Antioch, 
where he was, by the special command of God, con- 
secrated in the manner before described. He then 
launches forth upon the turbulent sea of this world, 
and is zealously employed as a " fisher of men, n whom 
he brings into the church, and builds them up in all 
holy living. But why did he not entei more fully 
upon this work before ? Manifestly, because he had 
not been recognized by those "who were in Christ 
before him," to whom he had never been introduced, 



62 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



and received from them the " right hand of fellow- 
ship," as a " fellow laborer ;" but was now, by the 
body of elders who were assembled at Antioch, being 
presented to them by his faithful friend and coadjutor, 
Barnabas, regularly, by fasting, prayer, and imposition 
of hands, inducted into the order and office of the 
Christian ministry. Indeed, I cannot perceive in 
what more formal and solemn manner any man could 
be set apart for this sacred work. 

But as before suggested, allowing that this was not 
a consecration, per se, (of itself,) to the work of the 
Christian ministry, it still supports our position. If 
he was already fully inducted into the apostolic office, 
and had all the official sanction which was necessary, 
as our opponents contend, he was then, at that very 
time and place, among the highest officers ever known 
to the Christian church — having, indeed, supreme rule 
over all its members, people, deacons, and presbyters. 
Now let us see to what a sad alternative our op- 
ponents are driven by their own assumptions. Here 
was an apostle, made and ordained such by Jesus- 
Christ himself, as they contend, exercising of right a 
supreme authority over the whole church wherever he 
came, condescending, nevertheless, to receive the im- 
position of hands from his inferiors in order and office, 
for some special work ! I think they mwsH now be 
content to bind themselves with the cords of their own 
making. They must admit either, 1« That before 
this St. Paul was, at least, no higher in authority than 
were those three who laid their hands on him, and 
thereby made him their superior ; or, 2. Holding fast 
their assumption, allow that, in this instance, Paul 
" the greater was blessed of the lesser," and thereby 
nullify all their pretensions to the divine right, of a 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



63 



third order as essential to bless by imposition of 
hands; or, 3. They must give up all pretensions to a 
third order as being thus essential, by allowing that 
these elders — for they certainly could have been no 
higher in order — made St. Paul only equal to them- 
selves. But as this last supposition would be con- 
trary to matter of fact, as all know that he w r as em- 
phatically an apostle, they must adopt one or the 
other of the former suppositions, either of which is 
fatal to their cause. 

From the whole, therefore, I conclude, that St. 
Paul received his credentials as an accredited minister 
in this presbyterial college at Antioch, from the hands 
of men over whom he afterward exercised a spiritual 
and ministerial jurisdiction ; and therefore a body of 
elders, or of " prophets and teachers," may impart 
authority to an equal to become their superior in 
office. This, therefore, as I have before remarked, is 
so far from being an unusual thing, that it occurred, 
as it seems in the present case, at the very foundation 
of the Christian church. But the fact more especi- 
ally established in the passage before us is, that the 
right of ordination was originally in the body of pres- 
byters, else these usurped that which did not belong 
to them. 

Another proof of this position is found in 1 Tim. 
iv, 14, where St. Paul says to Timothy, " Neglect not 
the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by pro- 
phecy, with the laying on of the hands of the pres- 
bytery." It is true, that in the second epistle, the 
apostle exhorts Timothy to stir up the gift of God 
which is in thee, by the putting on of my hands." 
There need be, however, no discrepancy between 
these two passages. They may be reconciled either 



64 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



by supposing that St. Paul himself ordained Timothy 
to the office of a deacon, and that ho was afterward 
consecrated to the office of an elder by the hands of 
presbyters ; or that when he was thus set apart,. Stv 
Paul acted as president of the council, assisted in the 
ceremony by the presbyters. Both of these usages 
are sanctioned in those churches which admit ministers, 
by the ceremony of consecration, first to the office of 
deacons, and secondly to elders. 

With these plain and undeniable examples before 
us, proving most incontestably that the body of pres- 
byters did administer the rite of ordination, what shall 
we say of the following solemn declaration of Dr. 
Chapman, the modern advocate of the divine institu- 
tion of diocesan episcopacy ? He says, vol. i, p. 6, — 

" If there could be found one solitary example of 
presbyterian ordination in the sacred volume, I should 
be well pleased to ascribe to it the same force and 
authority which now attaches to that which is 
episcopal." 

The examples, not merely a solitary one, but twe* 
very eminent and perspicuous ones, are given above ; 
and until he can set then* aside, by something more 
solid than his flimsy criticism upon 1 Tim. iv, 14, 
which I shall examine hereafter, I hold him to his 
promise, which he has made with so much pleasure,, 
that he will " ascribe to it the same force and autho- 
rity," which he thinks belong to his episcopal ordina- 
tion. And I will here remark, that every quotation 
which he has made from the primitive fathers, is per- 
fectly compatible with what has been said respecting 
the parity of bishops and presbyters — only keeping in 
remembrance the distinction I have made between 
order and office. But as he has contended so earnestly 



AN ORIGINAL' CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



65 



for three distinct orders, jure divino, made such bv 
three separate consecrations by prayer and imposition 
of hands, I will humbly submit to him the following 
proposition : — If he will bring a solitary text in all the 
Bible, or from any Christian writer during the first 
two centuries of the Christian era, which proves that 
any one minister was thus consecrated three times by 
a third order, first a deacon, secondly an elder, and 
thirdly a bishop, I will promise, if his church will 
accept of me, to submit to a consecration by the hands 
of one of his bishops. It must be observed, that I 
do not say that such consecrations are wrong or un- 
scriptural ; but I deny that there is any express 
Scripture warrant for them ; and that therefore their 
utility and propriety must rest on other grounds than 
positive precept or a recorded example. 

But if he cannot produce this express warrant from 
the sacred Scripture, so far as the divine institution 
of his theory of episcopacy is concerned, his boasting 
is silenced for ever ; and we are left in full possession 
of the doctrine of expediency. I hope therefore, from 
his numerous professions of candor and Christian 
charity, and for which I am willing to give him full 
credit, that he will either come forward with his proofs, 
"strong as holy writ," or give us a practical illustra- 
tion of that candor, and renounce his doctrine which 
claims for the Protestant Episcopal Church the ex- 
clusive ricrht of ordination. 

If any reader doubts whether Dr. Chapman does 
set- up such a claim as this, let him read the follow- 
ing :— " It certainly does lead me to the conclusion, 
that ministers, who are not episcopally ordained, are 
acting as such, without any lawful authority," p. 20. 
This, surely, is a sweeping declaration ; but is 2 " like 



66 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



the chaff before the summer's threshing floor," in 
presence of the above Scripture examples, and those 
which follow from the primitive fathers, and other 
testimonies which are here, and will be hereafter 
produced. 

Having thus adduced Scripture authority in favor 
of our position, let us now inquire whether the practice 
of subsequent periods of the church corroborates the 
interpretation we have given of these scriptures. la 
respect to ordination itself, there is but little said in 
the writings of the primitive fathers respecting it ; yet 
that little plainly proves that it was done by presbyters. 
Indeed there was no need of asserting in so many 
words that presbyters did ordain others, because as 
bishops and presbyters were of the same order, what- 
ever was done by one, in virtue of his ecclesiastical 
order, was done by the other; so that, if bishops ad- 
ministered ordination, the presbyters did the same ; 
and as this was generally understood as of right be- 
longing to them, it was quite unnecessary to mention 
it as if it were a matter of doubtful disputation. 
However, we have some testimonies even to this point. 
Thus saith Firmillian : — 

" All power and grace is constituted in the church, 
where seniors preside, who have the power of baptizing, 
confirming, and ordaining." What these seniors were 
may be seen from a parallel passage in Tertullian r 
where he says that, " In the ecclesiastical courts,. 
approved elders preside, not distinguished for their 
opulence, but worth of character."* 

* These numbers, I perceive, have attracted the notice of 
some writers in the " Churchman," and particularly of 
" Diakonos." Though I have read his strictures, I did not 
myself think them worthy of any reply, until a friend informed 



AS ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



67 



But the passage more in point than any other, is that 
from Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, " who ex- 
pressly affirms that the twelve presbyters, constituted 

me that a gentleman of some reading- in the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church expressed a conviction that Diakonos had weaken- 
ed the force of some of my reasonings. And thinking that 
perhaps others may be under similar apprehensions, I submit 
the following remarks, which will show, at least, the frivolous 
character of the objections which are made to my positions. 

To any writer who will, in a fair and manly style, meet my 
main position, and attempt its overthrow, a respectful attention: 
will be given ; but to those who, like the writer in question, will 
evade the main point, and deal in such ridiculous cavils, I shall 
not feel myself bound to make any farther reply, nor attempt a 
more labored refutation. 

In commenting on my fifth number, this writer has selected 
the quotation from Firmillian, and presumes to think he has 
overthrown my position, that elders did ordain others, and says 
with great modesty, he has " used me up," and that unless I 
" bring something more to my purpose than this, my cause 
must sink/' Really this is amusing ! " Unless I bring some- 
thing more !" Why, in this very number and the subsequent 
one, I have brought no less than thii^teen other authorities all 
in support of this same proposition, that presbyters did ordain 
other presbyters, and even superior ministers, not one of which 
does this sapient writer deign to notice — and then gravely 
says, as if he had fairly won the day, because forsooth he er- 
roneously thinks he has slain one of my witnesses, " Unless I 
bring something more, my cause must sink." If indeed such a 
feather will sink it, it is not worthy of an effort to keep it 
afoat. 

Now I would ask him, to carry on the metaphor with which 
he has furnished me, to grapple with only one more of the 
anchors with which my barque lies safely moored ; I mean that 
furnished by Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria ; and if he can 
fairly raise this from its anchoring ground, he will deserve the 
thanks of those for whom he writes. Or if he thinks this too 
much of a Herculean task for his strength while in his " transi- 
tion state," let him grasp hold of Bishop White, of Cranmer, 
Therelby, Redman, Mr. F. Mann, Bishop G. Dowman, Stilling- 
fleet, Mosheim, Gieseler, or Wesley, When he has mastered 



68 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



by Mark, upon the vacancy of the see, did choose out 
of their number, one to be head over the rest, and 
the other eleven did lay their hands upon him, and 

these, if he still cry out for " something more," he may find it 
in the long line of succession which lies in shattered fragments 
along the road from Rome in the eighth, down to Canterbury in 
the sixteenth century. When he has collected these, and put 
them together so firmly that there shall be no danger of their 
falling to pieces under their own weight, it will be time enough 
to furnish him with fresh materials. 

The fact is, this Diakonos began his strictures before he 
heard what I had to say, and went on with some of his numbers 
under the false belief that my object was to invalidate the 
ordinations of the Protestant Episcopal Church, whereas nothing- 
was more foreign from my thoughts. And we all know what 
Solomon says of a man who " answereth a matter before he 
heareth it," and considering all the circumstances of the case, I 
believe no man, who has heard and considered both sides of the 
question, will blame me for thinking he was at least unwise in 
replying to a matter before he understood or even heard it. 
Probably, however, an apology may be found for him in his 
eagerness to ingratiate himself into the favor and confidence of 
his new friends. 

Since the above was written, I perceive on looking at another 
number of the " Churchman," an abortive attempt has been made 
by this same writer to invalidate the testimony of Eutychius, by 
saying that because he flourished in the tenth century, he is not 
to be depended upon. But let us in the first place hear what 
Mosheim has said of him. 

" Of the many examples we might mention to prove the 
truth of this assertion," namely, that " Egypt produced writers 
who in genius and learning were nowise inferior to the most 
eminent of the Grecian literati," " we shall confine ourselves to 
that of Eutychius, bishop of Alexandria, who cultivated the 
sciences of physic and theology with the greatest success, and 
cast a new light upon them both by his excellent writings." 
And in another place the same historian says : — 

" Among the Arabians, no author acquired a higher reputation 
than Eutychius, bishop of Alexandria, whose Annals, with 
several other productions of his pen, are still extant." To 
sustain these assertions, Mosheim quotes Albert. Fabricii 



AN* ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



69 



made him patriarch." This shows, not only that the 
presbyters ordained, but that they actually ordained 
one of their own number to be their superior in office. 

Bibliographia Antiquaria, p. 179. Also Eusebii Renaudoti 
Historia Patriarch. Alexandr, p. 347. See Mosh. Cent, x, 
Par. ii, ch. i, ii. 

Here then was a patriarch living in the very place, and 
occupying the episcopal chair of the very church whose Annals 
he wrote, and which Annals Mosheirn tells us were extant in 
his time ; and it is from these same Annals, called by Stilling- 
fleet, Origines Ecclesia Alexandriane, (Origin of the Alexandrian 
Church,) which the learned Selden published in Arabic, that the 
above testimony is quoted. Who more likely to ascertain the 
facts in the case than the very man who lived, taught, and 
wrote in the very city and church whose annals he wrote ? 
Had he not the most easy access to the archives of the church 
whose overseer he was ) 

But, says our objector, this testimony of Eutychius is not to 
be relied on, because he lived in the tenth century ! Verily this 
is an age of discovery ! How long did Moses live after the 
events had come to pass which he narrates I Josephus must 
be muzzled because he happened to live upward of four thou- 
sand years after Adam was taken from the ground ! Indeed, 
according to this rule, by a summary process all the historians, 
except those who have confined their narratives to their own 
times, must pass under the knife of excision, as pseudo annal- 
ists, and therefore worthy of death ! Rollin, Hume, the 
authors of the Universal History, Mosheirn, Milner, Hawes, 
Gregory, Dupin, and a thousand others, must all go by the 
board, as unworthy of credit, because they wrote of times so 
long anterior to their own days ! 

I wonder to what historian this defender of the succession 
will go for proof of his doctrine of an unbroken line. Will he 
be able to find any one of these apostolic successors who has 
lived long enough to have seen with his own eyes every bishop 
seated in the chair of episcopal succession, a*ter having had the 
oil of consecration poured upon his head for the third time, in 
order to make him a canonical bishop ! And at the same time 
did he watch so narrowly as to be able to affirm positively that 
there has not been, in a single instance, a deception ; but that 
every man of them was ordained first a deacon, then a priest, 



?0 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



This fact, together with the circumstances which ac- 
companied the ordination of St. Paul, will fully justify 
the act of Mr. Wesley in the consecration of Dr. Goke, 
as superintendent of the Methodist Church in America. 
But more of this hereafter. 

It may be satisfactory to the reader to have the 
opinions of some Episcopal writers upon this subject. 
Among the English reformers there were none more 
eminent for learning, for moderation, and for sound 
judgment, than Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, 
It seems that the king propounded a number of ques- 
tions to him, in conjunction with several other high 
dignitaries of the church, respecting the settling of 
certain questions of church order, for better regulating 
the " laws of the realm," Among other questions was 
the following : — 

u Whether bishops or priests were first ? and if the 
priests were first, then the priests made the bishop." 
To this Cranmer answers, — 

and thirdly a bishop 1 All this must have been done, according 
to this man's rule of evidence, or the narrative is vitiated. 

But it is not surprising that an attempt should be made to set 
aside this testimony of Eutychius, for it is a death blow to the 
doctrine of the essentiality of a third order to a valid ordina- 
tion. And hence the most unreasonable demand, that I must 
prove that Eutychius did in truth express himself thus, I have 
produced the witness, plain, positive. Let them, if they can, 
invalidate the truth of his evidence. I have moreover corro- 
borated the truth of this testimony by that of a number of others, 
all of whom testify to the general fact, namely, that presbyters 
did ordain other presbyters, and also, in many instances, supe- 
rior ministers in office. Can they invalidate this testimony ? 
They know that they cannot. I lay it down, therefore, as a 
principle ab initio, that the right of ordination was in the 
college of presbyters, and that they exercised it when, where, 
and as long as they pleased ; and that, whenever they were 
divested of it, it was either a voluntary act of their own, or was 
taken from them by force. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



71 



" The bishops and priests were at one time, and 
were not two things ; but both one in office at the 
beginning of Christ's kingdom." 

It appears also that the bishop of St. Asaph, 
Therelby, Redman, and Cox, were all of the same 
opinion with the archbishop, that bishops and pres- 
byters were of the same order ; and the two latter 
expressly cite the opinion of Jerome, with approbation. 

Mr. Francis Mann, in his defence of the ordina- 
tion of ministers beyond the sea, though he held that 
the order of bishops was above that of presbyters in 
the primitive church, being of apostolic usage, and in 
this sense jure divino, vet allowed that it was not 
essential to the integrity of a Christian church, but 
held that " ministers are lawfully ordained by mere 
presbyters. His concluding words are these ; — 

" But if by jure divino you understand a law and 
commandment of God, binding all Christian churches 
universally, perpetually, unchangeably, and with such 
absolute necessity that no other form of regiment mav 
in any case be admitted, in this sense, neither may 
we grant it, nor yet can you prove it to be jure 
divino?' — that, is of divine right or appointment. 

Bishop G. Dow man expresses himself to the same 
effect, in nearly the same words. And these were 
:all high Episcopalian writers, and strenuous defenders 
•of the hierarchy of England ; but they defended it not 
as a thing essential to the existence of a Christian 
■church, universally and perpetually binding upon all 
churches, at all times and under all circumstances, as 
does the writer I have quoted at the head of these 
numbers, and as Dr. Chapman and other rigid Pro- 
testant Episcopalians of this country, now hold it to 
he. As to Dr. Chapman, in his zeal to maintain the 



72 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

honor of his church, and its exclusive privilege of con- 
ferring orders upon ministers, he has misrepresented, 
no doubt unintentionally, the opinions of some of the 
reformers, no less than he has mistaken, as I think, 
the meaning of Scripture and the fathers, as I shall 
attempt to show hereafter. 

In quoting the opinions of writers in the English 
Church, I may be permitted to add that of Bishop 
Stillingfleet, who has given evidence in his Irenicum> 
of a most diligent and impartial research into the re- 
cords of the church on this subject, and from whose 
learned book I have borrowed the last two quotations. 
But why should I quote any particular passage of his 
book, since his entire performance is taken up in a 
most successful attempt to establish the fact that 
bishops and presbyters were identical as to order, and 
that therefore they possessed the inherent right of 
consecration before their liberties were restrained by 
episcopal encroachments, or by their own voluntary 
act, for the sake, as they thought, of securing greater 
peace and unanimity ? Yet, as the judgment of such 
a man, after a most laborious investigation, should have 
great weight in settling controversies of this sort, let 
us hear him in his own words. He says, — - 

" In the first primitive church the presbyters all 
acted in common for the welfare of the church, and 
either did or might ordain for others to the same au- 
thority with themselves ; because the intrinsical power 
of order is equal in them, and in those who were 
afterward appointed governors over presbyters. And 
the collocation of orders doth come from the power 
of order, and not merely from the power of jurisdic- 
tion. It being likewise fully acknowledged by the 
schoolmen that bishops are not superior to presbyters, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



73 



as to the power of order." See Irenicum, pages 273, 
392, 412. 

Gieseler, in his Text Book of Ecclesiastical His- 
tory, recently translated from the German into Eng- 
lish, says, vol. i, p. 56, that, " at the head of each of 
the new churches were the elders, all officially of 
equal rank, though in several instances a peculiar au- 
thority seems to have been conceded to some one 
individual from personal considerations." And in a 
note he says that it is " remarkable that even the pa- 
pal canonist, Jo. Paul. Lancelottus, (about 1570,) in- 
troduces the passage of Jerome* without any attempt 
to refute it. The distinction between the institutio 
divina et ecclesiastica w 7 as of less importance in the 
middle ages than in the modern catholic church, and 
this view of the original identity of bishops and pres- 
byters w T as of no practical importance. It was not 
until after the reformation that it was attacked. Since 
this all catholics, as well as English Episcopalians, 
maintain an original difference between bishops and 
presbyters." And we must now add that this fanci- 
ful distinction is also maintained by Protestant Epis- 
copalians as stoutly as if the salvation of souls de- 
pended upon the settling of this debateable point on 
their side of the question. I must defer some other 
authorities in support of our views, to another num- 
ber. Among others to which reference will be made, 
is that of the late Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, who 
published a pamphlet on this subject in 1783, to the 
sentiments of which he declared, in his Memoirs of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, the second edition 
of which was published under the author's own direc- 

* See this passage in Jerome, in a former number, 
4 



74 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



tion in 1836, a short time previous to his death, that 
he still adhered. 

Though these human testimonies are not, in them- 
selves, decisive of the point in question, yet they must 
have great weight when it is considered that they 
were delivered by men in favor of English Episco- 
pacy, and in the presence of their contemporaries of 
an opposite sentiment. And they ought to have the 
effect to moderate, at least, the pretensions of those 
who are so forward in excluding all churches, other 
than their own, from a participation of a valid Chris- 
tian ministry. But as these latter gentlemen lay such 
stress upon the unbroken succession of episcopacy, 
in their own sense of the word, it is intended, before 
this discussion closes, to investigate that claim in the 
light of historical facts ; by which I apprehend it will 
be found that if it be not, indeed, " a fable," it is at 
least an assumption resting on no solid foundation. 

Lest, however, any should mistake my meaning in 
relation to this topic, let it be recollected that I do not 
take it upon me to say that there has not always been 
an order of ministers in the church, called bishops? 
but that there has not been such an order to whom 
the exclusive right of ordination belonged, and who 
were diocesan bishops, in the present acceptation of 
that term. Indeed, allowing the truth of our position, 
that in the apostolic days presbyters did ordain ministers 
both equal and superior to themselves, then it follows 
that there was a time when no such claims were made 
in behalf of an exclusive power of ordination in a su- 
perior order ; and hence their chain is defective, inas- 
much as it wants the very first link to make it com- 
plete. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



75 



NUMBER VI. 

Presbyter sometimes used as a title of office — Other testimonies 
in proof of the identity of bishops and presbyters— Mosheim— 
Bishop White— Hooker— Archbishop Usher — Bishop White's un- 
altered opinion — Bishops of England approved of his views — 
Mr. Wesley's views the same — The question submitted, 

Though I might here rest the cause as to the iden- 
tity of bishops and presbyters, and as to the power of 
ordination originally resting in them, yet I think it 
expedient to fortify our position by some additional 
testimonies. Before, however, I produce these, I think 
it needful to make one or two remarks to prevent mis- 
takes. From what was said in a former number re- 
specting the difference between bishops and presbyters, 
some might be led to conclude that the appellation of 
presbyter was never used as a term of office, or as 
an ecclesiastical designation. This by no means fol- 
lows ; for though the word itself comes from a root 
which signifies age, and was therefore used to desig- 
nate those persons because it fitly expressed that dig- 
nity of character which grows out of wisdom acquired 
by a long experience, yet it is also used as a term of 
official standing in the church. Thus, in Luke xxii, 
66, and Acts xxii, 5, and several other places where 
the word occurs, it undoubtedly means the members 
of the Jewish sanhedrin, who exercised both a civil 
and religious jurisdiction over the people, and were 
therefore so denominated from their official station, 
whether they were old or young in years, And there 
can be little doubt that from this use of the term 
among the Jews, it was transferred by the Christians 
to the venerable officers to whom was committed, in 
imitation of the elders who composed the sanhedrin, 



76 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

the government of the Christian church. Hence 
2 John, verse 1 ; 1 Peter v, 1 ; and 3 John, verse 1, it 
is applied to the apostles themselves. And in the 
passage of St. Peter, we have one of the strongest 
proofs that can be found that the title of emoKoirog, over- 
seer or bishop, did not designate a higher order in the 
church than a presbyter ; for in this very passage the 
apostle calls himself cvfmpecrdvrepoc, that is, a joint elder 
with those to whom he wrote, and at the same time, 
in the second verse, he charges these very persons to 
take the emaKonovvreg, the oversight " of the flock of 
God," thereby expressing their peculiar work as elders 
by a term indicative of their office. This text, there- 
fore, should for ever put to silence those who contend 
that because some of the first ministers were called 
overseers, they held a rank superior to elders, except 
so far as has been already explained. The apostle 
indeed addresses those persons as his equals in order, 
being no doubt among the first of the primitive Chris- 
tian teachers. 

Believing, however, this point to be unassailable by 
our opponents, I will now proceed to adduce a few 
other testimonies in favor of the position, that the 
power of ordination was originally in the college of 
presbyters. The next we will cite, as corroborative 
of the testimony of Gieseler, is Mosheim, who is an 
ecclesiastical historian of fidelity and celebrity, equal, 
if, indeed, not superior, to any who have written the 
annals of the church. Speaking of the church during 
the first century, he says : — 

" Three or four presbyters, men of remarkable piety 
and wisdom, ruled these small congregations" (which 
he had before described) * in perfect harmony, nor 
did they stand in need of any president or superior to 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 77 

maintain concord and order where no dissensions were 
known. But the number of the presbyters and dea- 
cons increasing with that of the churches, and the sa- 
cred work of the ministry growing more painful and 
weighty, by a number of additional duties, these new 
circumstances required new regulations. It was then 
judged necessary that one man of distinguished gravity 
and wisdom should preside in the council of presby- 
ters, in order to distribute among his colleagues their 
several tasks, and to be a centre of union to the whole 
society. This person was, at the first, styled the 
angel of the church to which he belonged, but was 
afterward distinguished by the name of bishop or in- 
spector, a name borrowed from the Greek language, 
and expressing the principal part of the episcopal 
function, which was to inspect into, and superintend 
the affairs of the church. It is highly probable that 
the church of Jerusalem, grown considerably nume- 
rous, and deprived of the ministry of the apostles, who 
were gone to instruct other nations, was the first who 
chose a president or bishop, 

" Let none, however, confound the bishops of this 
primitive and golden period of the church with those 
of whom we read in the following ages. For, though 
they were both distinguished by the same name, yet 
they differed extremely, and that in many respects. 
A bishop, during the first and second centuries, was a 
person who had the care of one Christian assembly, 
which at that time was, generally speaking, small 
enough to be contained in a private house. In this 
assembly he acted, not so much with the authority of 
a master, as with the zeal and diligence of a faithful 
servant" 

Such were the primitive bishops or presbyters 



78 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



How unlike many of those who profess to be their 
successors ! It is true, Mosheim does not say any 
thing respecting their having the power of ordination ; 
but it follows of course if they were the rulers of the 
church, that they also attended to other matters belong- 
ing to their office, among which was doubtless that 
of ordination. We must not forget, however, that 
over all these the apostles, and, in their absence, the 
itinerating evangelists, exercised a general oversight. 

The next evidence which I shall bring forward in 
favor of the truth we are endeavoring to establish, is 
the late Bishop White. At the close of the revolu- 
tionary war, before the independence of these United 
States had been acknowledged, the clergy of the Eng- 
lish Church not meeting with encouragement from the 
bishops of England in their application for an Ameri- 
can episcopacy, the Rev. Mr. White, then a presbyter 
of that church, wrote a pamphlet, entitled, " The Case 
of the Episcopal Church in the United States Consi- 
dered." In this pamphlet, which was published in 
1783, the author proposed the electing and consecrat- 
ing a bishop by the hands of presbyters, pleading the 
lawfulness of it from the exigencies of the times. 
From this pamphlet some extracts will be taken. 

I am glad to find the opinion I have before ex- 
pressed respecting the unscripturalness of submitting 
to the secular authority the power of appointing bish- 
ops, confirmed in the pamphlet before me, The au- 
thor says, p. 9, " In England, the bishops are appointed 
by the civil authority, which was a usurpation of the 
crown at the Norman conquest." This usurpation, 
thus exercised, was assigned as one of the principal 
reasons why the episcopal churches in this country 
should proceed to elect a bishop, and to organize 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 79 

themselves under him without waiting for the succes- 
sion, and thus to separate themselves also from the 
English Church ; for, up to this time, the Episcopal 
churches in this country were under the jurisdiction 
of the bishop of London ; but, as the author says, 
ft All former jurisdiction over the churches being with- 
drawn," he now urges them to form a separate and 
distinct organization. 

After proposing a general outline of a plan for this 
organization, Bishop White proceeds to say : — 

" Now, on the one hand, to depart from episcopacy 
would be giving up a leading characteristic of the com- 
munion ; which, however indifferently considered as to 
divine appointment, might be productive of all the 
evils generally attending changes of this sort. On 
the other hand, by delaying to adopt measures for the 
continuance of the ministry, the very existence of the 
churches is hazarded, and duties of positive and indis- 
pensable obligation are neglected." 

Here it is manifest that the author waived all claim 
to the " divine appointment" of episcopacy, as then 
held by the English Church ; while from the " posi- 
tive and indispensable obligation" of other duties, by 
which he unquestionably means to include baptism 
and the Lord's supper, he thinks it right to pro- 
vide for their performance by securing an episcopacy 
through the medium of presbyterial ordination. To 
secure this object with as little delay as possible, he 
says : — > 

? The conduct meant to be recommended, as founded 
on the preceding sentiments, is to include in the pro- 
posed frame of government, a general approbation of 
episcopacy, and a declaration of an intention to pro- 
cure the succession as soon as conveniently may be i 



80 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

but in the meantime to carry the plan into effect 
without waiting for the succession." 

And with a view to reconcile his brethren to the 
moderate episcopacy which he recommended, differing 
in divers respects from the lofty pretensions of the 
English hierarchy, the author gives the sanction of his 
name to the very doctrine we have advanced respect- 
ing the restricted power of the bishops. He says : — 

" In the early ages of the church, it was customary 
to debate and determine in a general concourse of all 
Christians in the same city, among whom the bishop 
was no more than president.'''' And hence he remarks, 
that to relinquish the " worship of God, and the in- 
struction and reformation of the people, from a scru- 
pulous adherence to episcopacy, is sacrificing the 
substance for the ceremony" 

In this sentence the author must mean by episco- 
pacy, that which was to be derived only from the 
regular succession ; for he was pleading with all his 
might for one of another character, and that he calls 
a mere empty ceremony in comparison to more sub- 
stantial matters. Is not this an utter abandonment of 
the divine right of diocesan episcopacy ? For surely 
this respectable presbyter could not have called a di- 
vine institution a mere ceremonial thing, contrasted 
with the substance, which consisted in the " instruc- 
tion and reformation of the people." He furthermore 
allows that this doctrine of episcopal succession, as 
now so strenuously contended for by Pro Ecclesia, 
Dr. Chapman, and others, is at best a "disputed point." 
His words are : — 

" But are the acknowledged ordinances of Christ's 
holy religion to be suspended for years, perhaps as 
long as the present generation shall continue, out of 

4* 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



81 



delicacy to a disputed point, and that relating only to 
externals V " All the obligations of conformity to the 
divine ordinances, all the arguments which prove the 
connection between public worship and the morals of 
the people, combine to urge the adopting some speedy 
measures : if such as have been above recommended 
should be adopted, and the episcopal succession after- 
ward obtained, any supposed imperfections of the in- 
termediate ordinations might, if it were judged proper, 
be supplied without acknowledging their nullity, by 
a conditional ordination resembling that of conditional 
baptism in the liturgy ; the above was an expedient 
proposed by Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop Patrick, 
StiUingfleet, and others, at the revolution, and had 
been actually practised in Ireland by Archbishop Bram- 
halL" This passage speaks for itself. But the fol- 
lowing is still stronger in support of our views :— 

" It will not be difficult to prove that a temporary 
departure from episcopacy, in the present instance, 
would be warranted by her (the Church of England) 
doctrines, by her practice, and by the principles on 
which episcopal government is asserted.'' 

He then proceeds to the proof of this postulate, by 
quotations from her articles of religion, her canons, 
and the preface to the Book of Common Prayer ; by 
which he most evidently makes it appear that the 
Church of England herself did not consider episcopal 
ordination by a third order essential to the validity of 
a Christian ministry. And to sustain himself in his 
opinions, he next refers to the practice of that' same 
church, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, one of the 
she heads of the church ! He says, 

" Many of the exiles" — who had fled into Germany 
and Geneva during the persecutions of Protestants 



82 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



under the reign of Mary, another she head of the 
church ! — " returned to their native land ; some of 
whom, during their absence, had been ordained ac- 
cording to the customs of the countries where they 
had resided ; these were admitted without re-ordina- 
tion to preach and hold benefices : one of them was 
promoted to a deanery"—" there existed an extraordi- 
nary occasion, not provided for in the institutions of 
common use, the exigency of the case seems to have 
been considered ; and there followed a toleration, if 
not an implied approbation, of a departure in that in- 
stance from episcopal ordination." 

Not to multiply extracts unnecessarily, I will pre- 
sent the reader with only one or two more. The 
following shows that the author wrote under the inspi- 
ration which earnest sincerity always inspires. After 
quoting the opinion of Bishop Hoadly, an eminent 
English bishop, who wrote against Dr. Calamy, a 
divine-right Episcopalian, Bishop White says : — 

" Now, if the form of church government rest on 
no other foundation than ancient and apostolic prac- 
tice, it is humbly submitted to consideration, whether 
Episcopalians will not be thought scarcely deserving 
the name of Christians, should they, rather than con- 
sent to a temporary deviation, abandon every ordinance 
of positive and divine appointment." 

After quoting from Hooker, who is considered the 
oracle of the high-toned Episcopalians, and other 
learned writers of that communion, in support of his 
views, he presents the following from Archbishop 
Usher, in proof of the validity of presbyterial ordina- 
tion. In a letter to Dr. Barnard, he writes thus : — 
" In places where bishops cannot be had, the ordina- 
tion of presbyters stands valid" On this ground, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 83 

allowing that we had no other, I could frame a com 
plete justification of the proceedings of Wesley in the 
organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For 
the reader will recollect that all these arguments and 
testimonies are brought forward in justification of pres- 
byters conferring office, by their act of consecration, 
on a bishop, and thus creating an officer superior to 
themselves. How else could the episcopacy, in their 
sense of the word, have been kept up by this tempo- 
rary deviation from the accustomed method ? 

It may, however, be asserted by some, that Bishop 
White, by going to England to obtain episcopal or- 
dination, gave proof that he afterward altered his mind. 
I should myself be inclined to this opinion had I not 
his own words to the contrary. I have now lying 
before me the Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, compiled by this same venerable man, whose 
catholic spirit, while it adorned the church over which 
he so long and worthily presided, rebukes the bigots 
who are now springing up, and pleading with such 
pertinacity for the exclusive right of ordination, In 
these Memoirs he alludes to this pamphlet, which was 
published in 1783, no less than fifty-three years before 
the last edition of the Memoirs was published under 
his own supervision : he says, — 

" After the years that have passed, there does not 
appear to his mind" (the bishop speaks in the third, 
instead of first person) " any cause to retract the 
leading sentiments of that performance." 

Nay, it appears from what the bishop says farther 
onj that the sentiments of the pamphlet were approved 
by the archbishops of Canterbury and York, and those 
other bishops of the Church of England who were 
concerned in his consecration. His words are : — 



84 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

" Before the author's subsequent visit to England, 
he knew that his pamphlet had been in the hands of 
the archbishop of York — and he did not express any 
dissatisfaction with the pamphlet, or with the author 
on its account ; nor has any other English prelate, so 
far as is known to him."— (See p. 90 of the Memoirs.) 

This, it seems, was published under the author's 
own inspection, a short time before he died ; for the 
preface to this second edition, written by Bishop 
White himself, is dated April, 1836. It would appear, 
therefore, that after maturing the subject for not less 
than fifty-three years, his opinion remained unaltered. 
But this is not all. According to the extracts above 
made, it appears that the bishops of England, eighteen 
of whom were consulted respecting the granting his 
consecration, were of the same opinion ; for he says 
that the pamphlet had been sent through the American 
minister, Mr. Adams, to the archbishop of Canterbury, 
and that none of these prelates made the least objec- 
tion to any of its doctrines, nor yet to their author ; 
but actually ordained him, knowing that he held these 
sentiments, purely Wesleyan as they are, at the time 
of his consecration. 

We may therefore consider this a most manifest 
proof that the episcopate of England, high as they are 
in official dignity, in consequence of their supposed 
apostolic descent, approved of presbyterial ordination 
as valid, under certain circumstances. 

To suppose the contrary — that they did not approve 
of the sentiments of the pamphlet and of its author, 
is to suppose that they solemnly consecrated a man 
to the high office of a bishop, whom they knew to be 
heretical in his opinions on a most important point 
of ecclesiastical economy. What an impeachment 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 85 

of their sincerity would be such a supposition ! The 
inevitable result, then, of this whole business is, that 
both Bishop White himself, and the bishops of Eng- 
land who were concerned in his consecration, approved 
the sentiments of the pamphlet from which I have 
quoted, and that the former died in this faith. 

This is a result to which I hardly thought of being 
conducted when I commenced these remarks upon 
the high pretensions of Pro Ecclesia ; and I think that, 
all things considered, it must be granted that while his 
signature represents him as pleading for the church, 
mine is equally appropriate, which is expressive of 
the church itself, setting up its own justification against 
his attacks upon this feature of its government, 

I shall conclude my extracts from human authorities, 
from a man who is not a whit behind any heretofore 
referred to, in learning, in his attachment to the 
church, in piety, or in the extent of his information or 
soundness of his conclusions : I mean the Rev. John 
Wesley. By these it will be seen that in setting apart 
Doctor Coke to the office of a superintendent, and 
preparing a plan for the organization of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, he acted under the conviction of a 
well-informed judgment, and not from the biases of an 
enfeebled mind, or the persuasions of a few ambitious 
individuals, who were anxious to have the sceptre of 
Methodist episcopacy transmitted to their hands. In 
his Journal, under date of January 20, 1746, he 
says — 

"I have read over Lord King's Account of the 
Primitive Church. In spite of the vehement prejudices 
of my education, I was ready to believe that this was 
a fair and impartial draught. But if so, it would 
follow that bishops and presbyters are essentially of 



86 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

one order ; and that originally every Christian congre- 
gation was a church independent on all others." 

Now let it be remembered that this declaration was 
made thirty -eight years before he presumed to exercise 
the right of ordination ; at a time when he had as little 
thought of ever doing so, as he had of transplanting 
himself to America : for though the H vehement preju- 
dices of his education" were in some measure con- 
quered, prudential considerations prevented him, until 
near the close of his life, from departing, in this 
respect, from the established usages of his church. 

In a letter to the Rev. Mr. Clarke, dated July 3d, 
1756, ten years after the above extract was written, 
he has these words, — 

" As to my own judgment, I still believe the epis- 
copal form of church government to be Scriptural and 
apostolical— I mean well agreeing with the practice 
and writings of the apostles. But that it is prescribed 
in Scripture, I do not believe. This opinion, which I 
once zealously espoused, I have been heartily ashamed 
of ever since I read Bishop Stillingfleet's Irenicum. I 
think he has unanswerably proved, that neither Christ 
nor his apostles prescribe any particular form of 
church government ; and that the plea of the divine 
right of episcopacy was never heard of in the primi- 
tive church." How like the sentiments of Bishop 
White, and those English bishops who consecrated 
him to the office of a bishop, are these of Mr. Wesley ! 
And yet the latter, in the estimation of some of their 
zealous followers, is a heresiarch in this point of 
church order and government ! 

Two months after the above was written he thus 
expresses himself in a letter to the same gentleman : — 1 

" Concerning diocesan episcopacy, there are several 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 87 

questions I should be glad to have answered : 
L Where is it prescribed in Scripture? 2. How 
does it appear that the apostles settled it in all the 
churches they planted 1 3. How does it appear that 
they so settled it in any, as to make it of perpetual 
obligation? It is allowed Christ and his apostles did 
put the churches under some form of government or 
other. But, 1. Did they put all the churches under 
the same precise form ? If they did, 2. Can we 
prove this to have been the same which now remains 
in the Church of England ?" 

And in his letter of 1784, he alludes again to Lord 
King's Account of the Primitive Church, which first 
convinced him that bishops and presbyters were of the 
same order in the ministry. I have made these quo- 
tations in the order in which they were recorded, for 
the purpose of showing that Mr. Wesley was by no 
means hurried into this act against his better informed 
judgment ; but on the contrary, it had been for a 
length of time his settled conviction — a conviction 
wrought in his mind from close inspection, after long 
and mature thought and inTestigation ; and that he was 
deterred from a more immediate execution of what he 
considered Scnpturally lawful, only from prudential 
considerations ; he did not wish to innovate upon the 
established order of things in Great Britain, nor yet 
in America, so long as the latter remained under the 
civil jurisdiction of the former. 

Here, then, I shall rest the question respecting the 
identity of bishops and presbyters in the primitive 
church, and of their power of ordination, having, as I 
think, fully sustained my position, 

1. From the Sacred Scriptures. 

2. From the primitive fathers. 



88 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



3. From the most respectable ecclesiastical writers 
in the English Episcopal Church. 

4. From the testimony of Bishop White and those 
English bishops who were concerned in his consecra- 
tion to the episcopal office. 

5. From the recorded opinions of Mr. Wesley. 

In my next, Providence permitting, 1 shall make 
an attempt to apply these principles to the organiza- 
tion and establishment of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church ; by which we shall be able to judge yet more 
intelligibly whether we are justified in these proceed- 
ings from Scriptural and primitive usages. 



NUMBER VII. 

Application of the foregoing principles— Mr. Wesley's character 
—His associates— Dr. Coke's credentials— Mr. Wesley's letter to 
Dr. Coke, Francis Asbury, and the brethren in North America — 
Dr. Coke's ordination justified from St. Paul's consecration — 
From the church of Alexandria— From Timothy — From testi- 
monies of English prelates — Bishop White — From analogy — Ori- 
ginal power of ordination in the body of elders— Delegated to others 
for the sake of convenience — No particular form prescribed — Mr. 
Wesley's right to ordain Dr. Coke and others recognized — It grew 
out of his relation to the Methodists — Summary of the whole 
argument. 

Having thus prepared the way, I shall now pro- 
ceed to inquire whether, in conformity to the principles 
we have established, Mr. Wesley and those engaged 
with him were justified in the steps they took to or- 
ganize the Methodist Episcopal Church. To be able 
to determine this point intelligibly, it is necessary that 
we should know who they were by whom this work 
was done, and what was their character. 

In respect to Mr. Wesley himself, all know that he 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



89 



was a regularly ordained presbyter of the Church of 
England. That he was called to the work of the 
Christian ministry, not only by the appointment of 
men, according to the ritual of the Church of England, 
but also by the Holy Ghost, he furnished the most 
indubitable evidence by that astonishing success in 
the awakening and conversion of sinners, which had 
been witnessed from the commencement of his public 
ministry. None, indeed, but such as are blinded by 
prejudice, or rendered incapable of reasoning by an 
incurable bigotry, will question his call to, and qualifi- 
cations for the work of the ministry, any more than 
they will his regular induction into that office accord- 
ing to the requirements of the English Church. 

Associated with him was the Rev. Mr. Creighton, 
also a presbyter of the Church of England, and a man 
of eminent literary and spiritual attainments, who had 
devoted himself to the work of an itinerant minister, 
under the direction of Mr, Wesley. 

With these was connected Thomas Coke, LL.D., 
another regular presbyter of the same church, whose 
zeal in the cause of Christ, and attachment to the 
Wesleyan plan of spreading the gospel, had com- 
mended him to the confidence of all who had had an 
opportunity of witnessing and appreciating his labors. 

Here, then,. were three presbyters, all men of piety 
and ardent zeal in the cause of Christ, whose sole aim, 
if we may judge of men's intentions by their works, 
was to promote the present and eternal salvation of 
men. Having assembled together at Bristol, and being 
perfectly agreed in the lawfulness and expediency of 
the measure, they first proceeded to set apart Thomas 
Vasey and Richard Whatcoat to the office of elders or 
presbyters ; and then Mr. Wesley, assisted by the 



90 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



presbyters present, set apart Thomas Coke, LL1X, 
to the office of superintendent of the Methodist 
Societies in America, giving him at the same time the 
following testimonial and letter to the brethren in 
America : — 

" To all whom these presents shall come, John 
Wesley, late Fellow of Lincoln College, in Oxford, 
Presbyter of the Church of England, sendeth greeting : 

"Whereas many of the people in the southern 
provinces of North America, who desire to continue 
under my care, and still adhere to the doctrine and 
discipline of the Church of England, are greatly dis- 
tressed for want of ministers to administer the sacra- 
ments of baptism and the Lord's supper, according to 
the usage of the same church ; and whereas there does 
not appear to be any other way of supplying them 
with ministers :— 

" Know all men, that I, John Wesley, think myself 
to be providentially called at this time to set apart 
some persons for the work of the ministry in America. 
And, therefore, under the protection of Almighty God, 
and with a single eye to his glory, I have this day set 
apart as a superintendent, by the imposition of my 
hands, and prayer, (being assisted by other ordained 
ministers,) Thomas Coke, doctor of civil law, a pres- 
byter of the Church of England, and a man whom I 
judge to be well qualified for that great work. And 
I do hereby recommend him to all whom it may con- 
cern as a fit person to preside over the flock of Christ. 
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand 
and seal, this second day of September, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty- 
four. John Wesley." 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 91 

Mr. Wesley also wrote the following letter, which 
Dr. Coke was directed to print and circulate among 
the societies on his arrival in America : — 

"Bristol, September 10, 1784. 

" To Dr. Coke, Mr. Asbury, and our brethren in 
North America. 

" By a very uncommon train of providences, many 
of the provinces of North America are totally disjoined 
from the mother country, and erected into independent 
states. The English government has no authority 
over them, either civil or ecclesiastical, any more than 
over the States of Holland. A civil authority is ex- 
ercised over them, partly by the Congress, partly by the 
provincial assemblies. But no one either exercises or 
claims any ecclesiastical authority at all. In this pecu- 
liar situation some thousands of the inhabitants of these 
States desire my advice, and in compliance with their 
desire I have drawn up a little sketch. Lord King's 
Account of the Primitive Church convinced me, many 
years ago, that bishops and presbyters are the same 
order, and consequently have the same right to ordain, 
For many years I have been importuned, from time 
to time, to exercise the right, by ordaining part of our 
travelling preachers. But I have still refused, not 
only for peace sake, but because I was determined, 
as little as possible, to violate the established order 
of the national church to which I belonged. 

" But the case is widely different between England 
and North America. Here there are bishops who 
have a legal jurisdiction. In America there are none, 
neither any parish minister. So that for some hun- 
dreds of miles together, there is none either to baptize, 
or to administer the Lord's supper. Here, therefore, 



92 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

my scruples are at an end ; and I conceive myself at 
full liberty, as I violate no order, and invade no man's 
right, by appointing and sending laborers into the 
harvest. 

" I have accordingly appointed Dr. Coke and Mr. 
Francis Asbury to be joint superintendents over our 
brethren in North America ; as also Richard Whatcoat 
and Thomas Vasey to act as elders among them, by 
baptizing, and administering the Lord's supper. And 
I have prepared a liturgy, little differing from that of 
the Church of England, (I think the best constituted 
national church in the world,) which I advise all the 
travelling preachers to use on the Lord's day in all the 
congregations, reading the Litany only on Wednesdays 
and Fridays, and praying extempore on all other days. 
I also advise the elders to administer the supper of the 
Lord on every Lord's day. 

" If any one will point out a more rational and 
Scriptural way of feeding and guiding these poor sheep 
in the wilderness, I will gladly embrace it, At pre- 
sent I cannot see any better method than that I have 
taken. 

" It has indeed been proposed to desire the English 
bishops to ordain part of our preachers for America. 
But to this I object, 1. I desired the bishop of London 
to ordain one, but could not prevail. 2. If they con- 
sented, we know r the slowness of their proceedings ; 
but the matter admits of no delay. 3. If they were 
to ordain them now, they would expect to govern 
them. And how grievously would this entangle us ! 
4. As our American brethren are now totally disen- 
tangled, both from the state and the English hierarchy, 
we dare not entangle them again, either with the one 
or the other. They are now at full liberty, simply 



AN* ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



93 



to follow the Scriptures and primitive church. And 
we judge it best that they should stand fast in that 
liberty wherewith God has so strangely made them 
free. John Wesley." 

One of the grand objections to these proceedings is, 
that Mr. Wesley, being a presbyter, ordained Dr. 
Coke a superintendent or bishop, thereby making him 
superior in office to himself. This objection, being 
specious, I will endeavor to obviate, and thereby to 
justify the act. 

1. It is justified, in the first place, from the ex- 
ample of the manner in which St. Paul was conse- 
crated by Simon, Lucius, and Menaen — all of whom 
were certainly inferior in office, at least, to him on 
whom they laid their hands. 

Indeed, there is a very striking resemblance between 
this act of these three prophets and teachers, who 
consecrated the Apostle Paul, and the act of Wesley 
and his associates, who set apart Dr. Coke. It is 
•said of the former, that after they had fasted and 
prayed, and laid their hands on them, " they sent them 
away." M So they, being sent forth by the Holy 
Ghost, departed unto Seleucia, and from thence they 
sailed to Cyprus." So also, when Dr. Coke received 
his commission by the laying on of the hands of the 
presbyters w T ho w r ere assembled in the city of Bristol, 
he and his companions were sent away, and " they 
sailed as far" as America, where, like those ancient 
ambassadors of Christ, they were employed in 
* preaching the word of God," and in organizing a 
church according to the apostolic model. 

2. It is justified, in the second place, by the 
presbyters of the church of Alexandria, who, for 



94 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

200 years, were in the practice of rejecting all foreign 
interference in the consecration of their bishop; and 
so far were they from keeping up the succession in 
the office of a third order superior to presbyters, that 
they always waited for the death of their ruling bishop, 
and then proceeded to elect one out of their own 
number, and the remaining eleven laid their hands on 
him and blessed him, thereby making him a patriarch, 
or first minister. They thus created one to be head 
over the rest, that is, superior in office to themselves. 

3. It is justified by che manner in which Timothy 
was consecrated, " which was with the laying on of 
the hands of the presbytery." For, allowing what 
our opponents contend for, that Timothy was an apos- 
tle or a bishop in their sense of the term, then it would 
follow that these presbyters conferred orders upon one 
who was superior to themselves — 'the same as Mr. 
Wesley, and those elders who were associated with 
him, conferred the office of superintendent or bishop — 
for I contend not about names — upon Dr. Coke. 

4. It is justified by all the testimonies I have brought 
from the primitive fathers respecting the identity of 
bishops and presbyters in the primitive church, and 
their power of ordination. 

5. It is justified by the arguments of Bishop White 
in favor, " from the exigencies of the times," of pro- 
viding for the " positive and indispensable duties of 
Christianity," by securing, through the medium of 
presbyterial ordination, the blessings of episcopal go- 
vernment — and by the approbation of those English 
bishops, who saw and read Bishop White's pamphlet, 
without censuring either it or its author, but conse- 
crated him a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church with the full knowledge that he held those 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



95 



sentiments, in the belief of which he lived and died. 
One might suppose that such a justification as is con- 
tained in these five arguments, would be sufficient to 
silence all objections. I have, however, others to offer. 

Notwithstanding the examples I have quoted in be- 
half of the fact, that a body of elders may, if they see 
fit, invest one of their own order with an office supe- 
rior to themselves, it is often objected to, in a sneer- 
ing manner, as totally unjustifiable on the principles 
of the gospel; and the objection, that in such a case 
" the greater is blessed of the less," is quoted with a 
sort of triumph, as though it were impious even to 
suppose it possible. But, as I have before remarked, 
this is a case of almost daily occurrence, both in and 
out of the church. In these United States, the peo- 
ple, with whom the right of seHf-government is sup- 
posed originally to reside, elect their representatives, 
governors, and presidents, who thereby become, in 
virtue of their office, superior to those from whom 
they derive their authority. The people hereby 
abridge themselves of a portion of their original, inhe- 
rent rights and liberties, by vesting them in others, 
for the greater security and protection of those which 
remain. Hence those thus elected to office are styled 
the delegates of the people, because the power they 
possess is delegated to them by those by w T hom it 
was originally possessed. This is a principle univer- 
sally recognized and acted upon in all public bodies ; 
and it grows out of the very nature of the social com- 
pact. A number of persons assemble together to de- 
liberate on some subject of general interest ; and that 
they may conduct their deliberations in an orderly 
manner, they elect a president or chairman, to whom 
is given, for the time being, a control over their deli- 



96 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



berations ; and he is, therefore, during the time he 
holds his office, their superior, overseer, or bishop. 
And is he any the less so because he derived his offi- 
cial standing from his equals ? 

So in the primitive church, the power of ordination 
was originally in the body of elders ; but, for the sake 
of convenience, as a matter of expediency, instead of 
retaining it in their own hands they might, and, it 
seems, in some instances did, delegate it to others ; 
though I am by no means able to prove from Scrip- 
ture that it was a universal custom, nor that it was so 
in any instance, that the same person was consecrated 
by prayer and imposition of hands three several times 
to the office of deacon, elder, and bishop, evangelist, 
or apostle. If any one will bring such an example, 
I will bow to it with all submission. Indeed, the 
laying on of hands was practised on other occasions 
beside the consecration of ministers. When Jesus 
Christ took the little children in his arms, he put his 
hands upon them and blessed them. The same cere- 
mony was used in baptism, as well as in praying for 
the recovery of the sick, as we read in several places. 
It seems, therefore, to have been an apostolic practice 
to accompany the dedication of a person to any spe- 
cial service in the church with prayer and imposition 
of hands, and hence it might or might not have been 
practised whenever a person was elected to any pecu- 
liar work in a department of the Christian ministry. 
But as this is neither commanded nor can be proved by 
any example on record in the Holy Scriptures, nor 
yet, so far as I am informed, in any of the primitive 
fathers for the first two centuries, it is a matter of 
indifference whether it be done or left undone — it is 
not. I think, essential in all these instances, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 97 



As we have no specific form of church government 
prescribed in the Holy Scriptures, much is left to the 
discretion of the church itself, to be regulated as the 
exigencies of the times, the circumstances of the place, 
or the particular genius of the people may dictate to 
be expedient. If any particular form of government 
had been essential to the existence, integrity, and 
prosperity of the church, doubtless a systematical draft 
would have been left on record for the guidance of all 
future generations. Instead of this, we are left to 
historical incidents, to practices alluded to in a sum- 
mary way, while the writer was intent upon another 
subject, to collect our views in relation to the orders 
and powers of the ministry, as well as to many other 
matters of church government. Thus much we may 
safely infer, that an order of ministers, constituted 
such by the laying on of the hands of the presbyters, 
who are in Scripture interchangeably called elders or 
bishops, is essential to a regularly organized church : 
but whether the ceremony of consecration was ad- 
ministered more than once to the same person to in- 
duct him into the fall ministry, is, I believe, more than 
can be decided by an express warrant from Scripture, 
or by any example left upon record. The probability 
is, I allow, that they were consecrated first to the 
office of deacons, and secondly to the order of elders ; 
but, as I cannot prove this from Scripture, I dare not 
affirm it as essential to constitute a valid ministry, 
As, however, it has been thus left to the discretion 
of those concerned, to regulate these matters in such 
manner and form as a prudent regard to circumstances 
shall dictate to be expedient and suitable, I can see 
no reason to condemn those who have adopted the 
practice of securing three orders in the ministry, pro- 

5 



98 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

vided it be so done as not to transgress a known pre- 
cept of Jesus Christ, or an acknowledged practice of 
the apostles. 

That this view of the subject is according to the 
doctrine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as well 
as our own, may be seen from the following article 
of religion which has been adopted by us both : — " It 
is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in 
all places be the same, or exactly alike ; for they have 
been always different, and may be changed according 
to the diversity of countries, times, and men's man- 
ners, so that nothing be ordained against God's word," 
This is very far from pleading for the divine right of 
episcopacy, as now contended for by Pro Ecclesia and 
others, and is a justification of the proceedings of 
Wesley and his associates in the instance before us. 

Those, therefore, who set apart Dr. Coke, being 
regularly ordained presbyters themselves, as they did 
not transgress any law of Jesus Christ, had a right to 
do as they did. Not being forbidden* but justified 
from the analogy of things, to do this by prayer and 
imposition of hands, they chose this method in pre- 
ference to any other-. 

It has been farther objected that Dr. Coke, being 
a presbyter, and therefore equal as to order in the 
ministry with Mr* Wesley, had as good a right to or- 
dain him, as he had to ordain Dr. Coke. I allow that, 
so far as right depended upon order simply, he had* 
In other respects, however, there was a vast difference 
between the two. Mr. Wesley was the father of the 
whole work. The entire body of Methodists had 
been raised up through his instrumentality. To him, 
therefore, they all looked for advice and direction in 
all matters relating to their spiritual welfare. He had 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



09 



a right, growing out of his relation to the whole con- 
nection, to which others, however eminent their attain- 
ments, or whatever official relation they might hold to 
other bodies, could not possibly make any just claim. 
The whole body of Methodists knowing this, and ac- 
knowledging Mr. Wesley as their spiritual father and 
founder, would receive from him what they could not, 
with anv justice or propriety, from any one else. 
Though, therefore, Wesley and Coke were equal as 
to official rank in the church, there was no comparison 
between them as to the relation they held to the 
Methodist societies. While the former had been la- 
boring in the ministry of reconciliation for upward of 
fifty years, and had become the father of a numerous 
progeny of spiritual children, the latter was compara- 
tively young in the gospel, having been connected with 
Mr. Wesley only about six or seven years previously 
to his embarking in this important enterprise. If, 
therefore, a minister of the Lord Jesus acquires rights 
by a long and laborious service, and by being made 
instrumental in the hands of God of one of the most 
extensive revivals of religion on record in modern 
days, then had John Wesley acquired rights in respect 
to jurisdiction over the Methodist societies, which it 
would be folly and madness for any one else to 
pretend to claim. Of the truth of this all must be 
sensible. 

This, however, of itself, would not, I allow r , be suf- 
ficient to justify him in a departure from a plain pre- 
cept of Christ, or of infringing upon any known usage 
of the primitive church. While it will fully justify 
him in the discharge of official acts to which none 
others could lawfully aspire, it cannot exempt him 
from condemnation if it can be made to appear that 



100 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

he transgressed an acknowledged rule of Christ ? s 
kingdom. But I contend that no such rule was trans- 
gressed. On the other hand, he is borne out in these 
proceedings by the example of St. Paul's consecration, 
by that of Timothy, of the Alexandrian bishops, and 
by the concurrent testimony of antiquity ; these all 
justifying presbyterial ordination. 

1. If an episcopal mode of church government is 
allowable on scriptural and primitive principles, as I 
think it is, then is Mr. Wesley justified from hence 
for preferring and establishing that mode in the man- 
ner he did. 

2. If the setting apart men to the order and office 
of ministers originally resided in the body of presby- 
ters, as I think I have abundantly proved that it did, 
then Mr. Wesley and his associates are fully justified 
in those transactions, for they were all regular pres- 
byters of the Church of England. 

3. If a regular succession from the apostles is ne- 
cessary to constitute a valid ministry, and allowing 
that this succession is to be found in the Latin branch 
of the church, whence the Church of England derived 
it — until they can make good their assumption of a 
third order superior to elders in a regular descent from 
the apostles, as essential to ordination, which I deny 
to be possible — then we are in the succession, and 
therefore are justified in the manner in which our 
church was organized and established. 

4. If learning, deep piety, ardent zeal, the most 
evident sanctions from the supreme Head of the church, 
are necessary to authenticate the validity of a divine 
call to the ministry, and to authorize men otherwise 
competent to establish a church, then were the found- 
ers of the Methodist Episcopal Church justified in 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 101 



what they did, for they had all these marks in an 
eminent degree. 

To all this it may be objected that there was no 
necessity for these transactions, inasmuch as the peo- 
ple might have been furnished with the means of grace 
by the hands of the regular clergy, without them. As 
this is a very weighty objection, I must, from the 
length of the present number, defer its answer to 
a subsequent one. In the meantime, I must be per- 
mitted to remark, that though this objection is allowed 
to be weighty, I think I have the most weighty of all 
my arguments in defence of Mr. Wesley and his asso- 
ciates, to remove it out of the way. Here, indeed, 
lies the main strength of the cause, for nothing will 
justify a man in doing an unnecessary work — a work 
of supererogation. 



NUMBER VIII. 

True state of the argument — The necessity of these proceedings 
from the state of society in Great Britain — The regular clergy in- 
competent for the work performed by Wesley — He was a reformer 
of the people — Opposed by those who should have sustained him — 
They, therefore, created the necessity for Methodism — Wesley 
called of God- 

The reader will bear in mind that our inquiry is 
respecting the conformity of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church to the original or primitive church of Christ : 
and I think I have already produced several points in 
which the parallel holds good, but more particularly as 
it regards the manner in which the ministry of each 
was constituted. It should also be remembered that 
the question is not whether the apostles and itinerating 
evangelists ordained others or not, but whether the 



102 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

right of ordination was restricted to them ; and I think 
I have already proved that it was not, but that the 
original right was vested in the eldership ; and that 
therefore, whenever others exercised it, the power was 
delegated to them by those elders to whom it origi- 
nally belonged. This having been proved by facts 
and arguments which cannot be easily set aside, the 
whole has been applied in justification of Mr, Wesley 
and his associates. 

If, however, there was no call far these proceed- 
ings ; if the world could have been saved better, or 
even as well without them as with them, so that there 
was no necessity from the circumstances of the times, 
from the moral and religious state of the church and 
the world, for such an organization ; then must all our 
arguments fail of carrying conviction to the mind of 
the reader of either the lawfulness or expediency of 
these measures. To this view of the subject, there- 
fore, I will now address myself. 

Let it be observed that there are two sorts of ne- 
cessity j the one arising out of the nature of things, 
or the circumstances of the case, and the other from 
a plain, positive law. The first is the necessity for 
which I plead. It arose plainly out of the nature of 
things as they then existed, or the circumstances in 
which the church was placed. The latter sort of ne- 
cessity, if the law be of divine origin, admits of no 
reasoning as to whether it should be yielded to or not, 
because such a law is of paramount obligation ; the 
claims of which yield to no other plea of necessity, 
however urgent may be the circumstances for a con- 
trary course. So, if our opponents can bring a posi- 
tive command of God for their third order, no plea of 
necessity can justify a deviation from it. But this is 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 103 

the very thing we deny. And in the absence of such 
a law, that necessity which arises out of the nature 
of things has an antecedent claim to all human requisi- 
tions, and cannot therefore be dispensed with without 
incurring guilt 

On this account our plea of necessity puts at defi- 
ance all those human restraints arising out of men's 
policy, and forces itself upon us, a priori, with all the 
authority of an immutable obligation. 

That which is necessary to enable us to fulfil le- 
gally a positive precept, has all the binding influence 
of a divine obligation. But baptism and the Lord's 
supper are imposed upon the members of the church 
in the form of positive precept ; unordained ministers 
are not qualified, except in some extreme cases, to 
administer these ordinances ; therefore it is the duty 
of those ministers who have it not to procure ordina- 
tion, provided they can do it without transgressing a 
known precept, that they may rightfully administer 
these ordinances. In the case of Methodism this ne- 
cessity existed, and this qualification was sought and 
found in a lawful way, 

That the state of society was such in Great Bri- 
tain at the time Wesley arose as to call, in most im- 
perious language, for a reformation, no one at all 
acquainted with those times will, I presume, pretend 
to question. Both clergy and laity had sunk away 
into a lamentable state of lukewarmness as it respects 
vital godliness, and the majority of them were guilty 
not only of neglecting the principles and spirit of their 
own church, but even of open profanity, and almost a 
total abandonment of the means of grace. 

Let those who doubt the truth of this statement 
consult Simpson's Plea for Religion, Wesley's Appeal 



104 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

to Men of Reason and Religion, neither of which has 
ever been answered, much less refuted, and Buck's 
Theological Dictionary, under the article " Method- 
ists," and they will have their doubts removed. There 
was therefore a necessity here of a reformation, to 
save the nation from being carried away with the 
floods of ungodliness, profaneness, and infidelity ; and 
Wesley and his coadjutors appear to have been raised 
up to effect this reformation, and to bring about this 
salvation. This is now generally admitted by all 
parties. And though the cry of heresy, fanaticism, 
and false doctrine, was raised against him by the luke- 
warm and the profligate., Wesley held on his way, 
witnessing everywhere the blessed results of his evan- 
gelical labors, in the awakening and conversion of 
souls. Such, however, was the opposition manifested 
toward him, that he was driven, first from the pulpits, 
and then forced into the " highways and hedges," to 
seek after the " lost sheep of the house of Israel." 
This irregularity, as it was called, brought on him ad- 
ditional reproach, and compelled him either to violate 
the dictates of a good conscience, by refraining from 
preaching altogether, or to persist in proclaiming sal- 
vation to a lost world in the open fields, and wherever 
else he could find access to the people. The success 
attending his labors brought thousands to inquire what 
they should do to be saved. To answer their solemn 
inquiry, and to build them up in the faith of the gos- 
pel, he found it necessary to form them into societies, 
under a set of rules by which they should regulate 
their conduct. But these soon so multiplied as to 
make it needful for him to have helpers in the minis- 
try, to exercise that pastoral oversight which was re- 
quired to "feed them with the sincere milk of the 
word," and to preserve them in faith and purity. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 105 

Who were to do this ? As to the regular clergy, 
they were, in general, fit for any thing beside. They 
persecuted both him and the flock intrusted to his 
care. In this dilemma God raised him helpers in a 
way he little expected. Some of the young men who 
had been converted to God by his instrumentality soon 
gave evidence of their call and qualifications for the 
work of the Christian ministry. Though quite reluc- 
tant at first to accept of this kind of help, so wedded 
was he to the orders and peculiarities of his church, 
yet, being convinced that divine Providence had raised 
them up for this very purpose, he accepted of their 
services, and appointed them to their field of labor. 
All this came upon him contrary to his expectations. 
Yet, on mature and prayerful consideration, he could 
not but receive it as coming in the order of divine 
Providence and grace. 

Now the question is, Was it necessary, for the re- 
formation and salvation of the people, for Wesley to 
adopt those measures ? I think it was. Who else 
would have stepped forth to stem the torrent of ini- 
quity ? Who was there in the nation, at that time, so 
well fitted by education, by science, by fervent piety, 
by evangelical views, to revive primitive Christianity, 
and to spread scriptural holiness through the land ? 
And what other means, so likely to accomplish this, 
could have been adopted ? If we may judge of a 
cause by the effects produced, the cause of all that 
mighty reformation which John Wesley and his asso- 
ciates effected, was the power and grace of God, 
which wrought mightily in him and in those that be- 
lieved through his word. 

These remarks apply chiefly to the state of things 
in Great Britain. And had the church there waited 

5* 



106 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST* 

for those who claim all church authority from their 
being in the apostolic succession, it might have re- 
mained until this day unreformed, asleep in sin, and 
have gone on in its downward course of spiritual de- 
clension and ruin. They were so far from putting 
forth an effort to reform the church, or to save sin- 
ners from the error of their ways, that they opposed 
and persecuted those who aimed to effect this great 
work. Let it not be said that Wesley was opposed 
first because of his forming societies, employing lay 
preachers, &c, for all this was subsequent to his being 
denied the use of the pulpits, and his name cast out 
as evil. And for what, and by whom, was he thus 
opposed and persecuted ? Why, by the very men who 
ought to have been the first to uphold and defend him, 
and for preaching those very doctrines which they had 
sworn to promulgate and defend. If, therefore, the 
reformation, the necessity of which was as clear as 
the light at noonday, had been left to those sleepy 
shepherds, it had remained uneffected to this day. 

That God raised up and qualified Wesley for a re- 
former of the people, who will take it upon him to 
dispute ? I say a reformer of the people ; for he 
never attempted a reformation of the church, either as 
to her doctrines or mode of government : so far was 
he from attempting this, that he was bigotedly attached 
to her rituals, to the order of her priesthood, and to 
all her peculiarities ; so much so, that he tells us that 
at one time he would have thought it almost a sin to 
save souls out of the church. He was therefore never 
guilty of the whining cant by which those pseudo re- 
formers have always distinguished themselves, whose 
object seemed to be more to pull down than to build 
up, and to raise themselves on the destruction of 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 107 



others. His simple object was to revive pure and 
primitive Christianity in the church of which he was 
a minister ; and he labored most conscientiously and 
assiduously to fill that church, of which he was such 
H a burning and shining light/"' with the Spirit and 
glory of God ; and had he been encouraged and sus- 
tained as he ought to have been, instead of establish- 
ing Methodism as a distinct connection, the Church of 
England might have been the glory of all lands. The 
opposition, therefore, to Wesley arose from those very 
persons who should have given him support, and on 
account of the bold, pointed, and spirited manner in 
which he proclaimed abroad those identical truths 
which were found in the articles and formularies of 
the Church of England ; the denial of which by his 
opponents and persecutors involved a renunciation on 
their part of the " faith once delivered to the saints."' 
Now, will our antagonists say that there was no 
necessity for these truths to be preached I Or will 
they insist that they might have been as successfully 
preached and defended by the regular clergy, without 
making such an innovation upon the established order 
of things ? To this I answer, that the innovation was 
their own fault. They, not Wesley, were the apos- 
tates from the church. They violated their ordination 
vows, departed from the spirit and letter of their own 
doctrines, and thus desecrated their own hallowed 
things by mingling them with errors of a deleterious 
character, and by sanctioning vices which both Scrip- 
ture and their own church condemned. As I before 
remarked, if their want of Christian faith and zeal had 
not made it necessary for Wesley to forsake their 
churches, and to provide an asylum for himself and 

those converted under his ministry, the Church of 

j 7 



108 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

England might have had within its pale the most holy 
priesthood and spiritual membership of any commu- 
nion on earth. 

Did the Head of the church call Wesley to this 
work? I will answer this question by asking ano- 
ther. Was the work in which Wesley engaged so 
zealously and successfully the work of God or the 
work of man ? If you say it was the work of God, 
then you allow that the Head of the church called 
Wesley to its performance, and that he sustained and 
sanctioned him in it. If you say it was the work of 
man, then you affirm that a man, independently of 
divine grace, without the aid of the Holy Spirit, could, 
by his own power and influence, reform more sinners 
from the error of their ways, and build them up in all 
holy living, than all the clergymen in England be- 
side ! Take, therefore, your own choice. If you 
choose the former, i. e., that it was the work of God, 
then you grant all for which I contend. If the latter, 
then you allow that sinners may be brought from 
darkness to light, and become changed in heart and 
life, by human power alone. You must therefore 
either allow that John Wesley was called, sustained, 
and sanctioned by the Head of the church, or turn 
open infidels, and confess that the power of the gospel 
is no longer necessary to the conversion and salvation 
of the world ; or, rejecting both these alternatives, 
deny that the reformation he was instrumental in 
effecting was the work of God. Take your choice, 
and abide the consequences. 

But these arguments, you will say, apply only to 
John Wesley, as a minister of the Lord Jesus, who is 
employed in preaching the gospel to a perishing world. 
I allow it. I consider them, therefore, only as prepa- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 109 

ratory, in this branch of the inquiry, to the grand 
question, whether it was necessary, in order to secure 
the use of the ordinances of the church of God to the 
Methodist societies in America, for Wesley and his 
coadjutors to exercise the power of ordination, and 
adopt the plan for the organization of these societies 
into a church here. But as this branch of the inquiry 
will occupy more space than can be well allowed to 
the present number, I must defer its consideration 
until my next. I will just say, therefore, now, by 
way of apprizing the reader of the basis of this part 
of the argument, that if it be the duty of the spiritual 
members of the church, and the proper subjects of 
baptism, to receive the ordinances of Jesus Christ ; 
and that if they cannot be validly administered without 
a validly ordained ministry, then it becomes the im- 
perious duty of those who are concerned in building 
up a church, to see, if possible, that it be provided 
with such a ministry. To say that it is the duty of 
Christians to partake of ordinances, and then deny to 
them the only w r ay in which they can partake of them 
lawfully, is extremely absurd and cruel. And in the 
farther examination of this subject, we shall see, if I 
mistake not, that our opponents are reduced, by their 
own objections to our proceedings, to this very 
dilemma. 



110 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



NUMBER IX. 

The same state of society here as in England — Reformation 
followed the labors of Methodist preachers — Unordained minis- 
ters not qualified to administer the ordinances — The necessity 
for these measures arose also from the character of the clergy— 
This proved from the testimony of Bishop White, Dr. Hawks, 
and Mr. Jarratt — Mr. Wesley's position justified his acts — 
His letter to Bishop Lowth — His consistency — The separation 
justified. 

Having shown, from the state of the world, and 
particularly the church in Great Britain, that there 
was a necessity for a reformation in morals and reli- 
gion at the time Wesley arose, and that he adopted 
the most likely means to effect this reformation, it now 
remains to inquire whether the same necessity existed 
in America. So far as respected the moral and reli- 
gious state of the people in this country, the same 
facts and arguments we have already used in reference 
to England, will apply with equal propriety and force 
to the state of things here. With the exception of a 
few insulated places in the more northern provinces, 
pure religion was at a very low ebb throughout the 
length and breadth of the country when it was first 
visited by the Methodist missionaries. It is true that 
the itinerating labors of Whitefield and some others of a 
kindred spirit, though of a more stationary character, 
had produced a salutary effect upon the minds of many 
in different parts of the country ; but yet the generality 
of the people were asleep as it respects spiritual and 
divine things ; while many were carried away with the 
overflowing flood of infidelity. As to the clergy of 
the Church of England, confined principally to the 
middle and southern provinces, they were far removed 
from the simplicity and purity of the gospel ministry. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. Ill 



Such was the state of things in this country when 
the Methodist itinerants commenced their gospel la- 
bors. As in England, their labors were blessed in the 
awakening and conversion of sinners, and in arousing 
the attention of the people, wherever they came, to 
the things of eternity. Those who were brought from 
darkness to light through their instrumentality, were 
gathered into societies, under the same rules by which 
the Methodists were governed in Great Britain. Be- 
ing thus brought into Christian fellowship under the 
ministration of men whom they owned as their spi- 
ritual fathers, it was natural for them to wish to re- 
ceive the ordinances of the Lord's supper and baptism 
from the same hands. Accordingly this desire was 
manifested at an early period of their history, and so 
urgently did a necessity of complying with it appear, 
that, as I have before remarked, contrary to the wishes 
of a majority, some of the preachers had proceeded to 
ordain each other, that they might have a lawful pre- 
text to administer the ordinances. This took place 
with the southern preachers. It was strongly resisted 
by Mr. Asbury and the more northern preachers, and, 
after an anxious and laborious effort to induce the 
malcontents to desist, they succeeded in persuading 
them to suspend farther proceedings until they could 
consult Mr. Wesley. He was consulted, and the re- 
sult was as I have before stated. 

Now, the question is, was the state of things such 
as to justify the measures which were adopted ? It 
will, be granted on all hands, with the exception of 
one inconsiderable denomination, that it is the duty 
of all Christians to partake of the supper of the Lord, 
and io see that the proper subjects of baptism should 
have that ordinance administered unto them. It is 



112 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

equally plain that unordained ministers are not quali- 
fied to administer these ordinances, any more than 
they are, without the most imperious necessity, to 
confer ecclesiastical orders upon others, and thus 
preserve the true succession of the ministry in the 
church. But the Methodist ministers had, up to this 
period of their existence, been considered only as lay 
preachers, and as such were unauthorized either to or- 
dain others, or to administer the Christian ordinances. 
Of this disqualification they were all sensible; for 
even the few who partially seceded from the original 
plan of Mr. Wesley, were so fully impressed with this 
truth, that they would not proceed to administer bap- 
tism and the Lord's supper until they had first pro- 
cured an ordination of themselves, although it must 
be admitted it was done in an irregular and a disorderly 
way. 

Here, then, were about fifteen thousand adult mem- 
bers of society, and eighty-three preachers, all desti- 
tute of the ordinances themselves, nor could they, 
without great inconvenience, procure baptism for their 
children. It may, however, be said that they might 
have gone to other denominations for these ordinances. 
To this there were insuperable objections. 

1 . In those places where the Methodists were most 
numerous, there were but few clergymen to be found, 
and some even of these were so destitute of piety 
themselves, that they opposed and persecuted both 
preachers and people who belonged to the Methodists. 

2. In consequence of the unevangelical character of 
most of the clergy of the Church of England, so called, 
those people who had been raised up by the instru- 
mentality of the Methodist preachers, were unwilling 
either to attend their ministry or to receive the ordi- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



113 



nances from their hands. To the want of evangelical 
qualifications in these clergymen, Dr. Hawks and 
Bishop White both testify ; the former by saying that 
some of them had taken military commissions in the 
army, and that one, a strong tory, fearing the wrath 
of the people, took pistols into the pulpit to defend 
himself against any assault : the latter remarks, that 
the Church of England " was becoming more and 
more unpopular, with some because it was not consi- 
dered as promoting piety, and with these and others, 
because they thought the provision for it a useless 
burden on the community." Bishop White then pro- 
ceeds to say :— 

" In Maryland and Virginia, there were many of 
the clergy whose connections with their flocks were 
rendered, by their personal characters, dependent 
wholly on the continuance of the establishment, and 
of course, fell with it." What a sad picture is this 
of the character of the clergy ! Having lost the con- 
fidence of the people by the worthlessness of their 
character, no sooner was the legal provision for their 
support withdrawn — which was the case soon after 
the commencement of the revolutionary contest — than 
they fell into disgrace, and being neglected by the peo- 
ple, were obliged to seek support from other sources. 
This is farther confirmed by the following remarks of 
the same author : — 

"After the fall of the establishment, a considera- 
ble proportion of the clergy continued to enjoy the 
glebes — the law considering them freeholders during 
life — without performing a single act of sacred duty, 
except, perhaps, that of marriage. They knew that 
their public ministrations would not have been attend- 
ed." [See Bishop White's Mem., p. 76.] 



114 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

Is it any wonder that the people forsook such "idle 
shepherds," who devoured the flock instead of feeding 
it ? And will any man say that it was the duty of the 
Methodist preachers and people to go to these clergy, 
who may be fitly compared to the "dumb dogs" of 
Isaiah, who were more fond of " lying down and lov- 
ing to slumber," than they were of taking an oversight 
of the flock of Christ ? And were these the men to 
complain of the Methodists for separating from them ? 
Or will their successors, who, through the instrumen- 
tality of this very Methodism have been aroused to 
wakeful thought, and active, spiritual life, condemn the 
Methodists of that day for making provision for them- 
selves, instead of waiting for those indolent priests, who 
could take an advantage of a technical distinction of 
law to retain their livings, " without performing a sin- 
gle act of sacred duty, except, perhaps, marriage ;" 
and in all probability they would not have done even 
that, were it not for the hope of the fee with which it 
was connected ! Who, with these facts before them, 
will not say that it was a solemn duty for the Method- 
ists to withdraw all connection with a church thus 
fallen ? — to refuse fellowship with a priesthood thus 
corrupt ? 

To this melancholy picture of the state of the clergy 
in general, agrees that of Dr. Hawks, in respect to 
them in Virginia. Speaking of the termination of the 
revolutionary struggle, he says : — 

" When the contest was over, she came out of the 
war with a large number of her churches destroyed 
or injured irreparably, with twenty-three of her ninety- 
five parishes extinct or forsaken, and of the remain- 
ing seventy-two, thirty-four were destitute of minis- 
terial services ; while of her ninety-eight clergymen. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



115 



twenty-eight only remained, who had lived through the 
storm." 

Now, while we lament such a devastation of 
churches which the war inflicted, we may ask, Why 
this diminution of clergymen in the Episcopal Church ? 
The historian from whom I quote, will himself furnish 
us with an answer. While many fled from their 
country during the war on account of their adherence 
to the cause of Britain, others had turned soldiers, and 
most of the remainder had become so obnoxious to the 
people on account of their indifference to their spi- 
ritual interests, that they would neither hear nor sup- 
port them. This accords with the testimony of 
Bishop White, above quoted. Had these clergymen, 
like the Methodist preachers, manifested a suitable 
interest for the salvation of the souls of the people, 
during the sanguinary conflict, they would have been 
equally honored by the people. While the latter, 
amid storms of persecution, even from many of these 
very clergymen themselves, as well as from other 
sources, persevered in the faithful discharge of their 
duty, and came forth from the fiery ordeal not only 
unscathed, but improved in morals and religion, having 
increased from a mere handful to about fifteen thou- 
sand strong — while, I say, this was the case with the 
Methodists, these boasted successors of the apostles, 
claiming the exclusive right of ordination and of ad- 
ministering the sacraments, fled from their flocks in 
the f< stormy day," exchanged the gown and cassock 
for the sword and pistol, and when the storm was 
oyer, fed themselves upon the glebes without even 
performing a " single act of sacred duty, except mar- 
riage," nor w T ould they, it seems, have done this, only 
from the hope of the fee ! And yet the Methodists 



116 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



are censured for not uniting with these lukewarm and 
unfaithful clergymen ! condemned for not giving them- 
selves and their flocks into the hands of such shep- 
herds ! Truly, we want no better plea than this for 
the necessity — yea, the absolute and indispensable duty 
of providing for ourselves under such circumstances. 
Nor are we afraid or ashamed to look our opponents 
in the face, and ask them why, in the very nature of 
things, did they not come to the Methodists and unite 
with them in reforming the church from such gross 
neglect, and such shameful departure from the pure 
principles of the gospel, as were exhibited in the con- 
duct of these reputed successors of the apostles !* 

* There were some honorable exceptions to this general cen- 
sure. The Rev. Mr. Jarratt, in particular, received the Metho- 
dist preachers with great cordiality, attended their quarterly 
meetings, and administered the sacraments of the Lord's sup- 
per and baptism to their people and children, and aided them 
with his counsel whenever requested. Had this spirit and con- 
duct continued unabated, and had the clergy of that day gene- 
rally manifested a kindred spirit, the Church of England would 
never have been reduced to the sad state above described, nor 
had the Methodists been under the same necessity of a separate 
organization. A union of effort, under such circumstances, 
might have been productive of the happiest results. But under 
the circumstances which actually existed, a union was impossi- 
ble, unless you can make it appear that Christ and Belial, light 
and darkness, may " firm concord hold." 

It is true that after the Methodists became organized as a 
separate church, Mr. Jarratt's feelings, if we may believe what 
is said in the letters attributed to him, and which were published 
after his death, underwent a surprising revolution, and he is 
made to utter bitter things against his old friends, not much to 
his credit, even allowing the facts on which he grounds his ac- 
cusation to be true, as they breathe a spirit of hostility, and are 
uttered in a coarseness of language hardly compatible with the 
spirit of Christianity. This record is made with the more re- 
luctance from the recollection of his usefulness in the ministry 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 117 

Now, I say, was it not necessary under these cir- 
cumstances for the Methodists to make provision for 
themselves, to supply their people with the word and 
ordinances of Jesus Christ ? 

in the earlier part of his labors, and particularly while his efforts 
were seconded by the Methodist preachers. But allowing that 
the favor Mr. Jarratt showed them, was on account of their pro- 
fessed attachment to the Church of England, as some contend, 
which was certainly sincere at the time, it only proves that 
much of selfishness mingled in his feelings, and detracts, there- 
fore, somewhat from the benevolence of his views. On this 
account I choose to attribute the altered state of his mind to 
other causes than a mere pique at the Methodists for forming a 
separate organization. The fact is, an alienation of feeling 
was manifested, if we may credit the letters alluded to, before 
this formal separation took place, and no doubt arose, in some 
measure at least, from seeing so many of the people uniting 
themselves under the Methodist standard, connected probably 
with acts of imprudence on the part of some of the Methodist 
preachers in their conduct toward him. Such are the lamenta- 
ble weaknesses of human nature ! 

But if Mr. Jarratt's testimony is to be quoted in one case, it 
certainly should be relied on in the other ; and he fully corro- 
borates all that has been said respecting the clergy of the esta- 
blishment. Let the reader consult pp. 99, 133, 135, 196, of 
his life. On the last mentioned page he says,— u Indeed most 
of the clergy, as far as I can learn, have preached, for a long 
time, what is little better than deism, notwithstanding our old 
articles were so pointed and clear on the peculiar doctrines of 
the Christian religion." And he assigns as a reason for not 
attending the conventions of his church any more, his want of 
fellowship for their doings. Let it be recollected that this letter 
of Mr. Jarratt is dated in the year 1796, twelve years after the 
organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Indeed, 
throughout his letters, he speaks of the clergy of his own church 
as having been among his most bitter revilers and persecutors ; 
and here, in the year 1796, he says they had, for a long time^ 
preached what is little better than deism" And yet these 
are the men, for separating from whom we are censured ! 

I should not have adverted to these things had not Dr. Hawks 
referred to Mr. Jarratt, by way of reproach upon the Methodists. 



118 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

3. As to other denominations, they manifested an 
irreconcilable opposition both to the doctrines and 
usages of the Methodists. The doctrines of general 
redemption, of regeneration, and the witness of the 
Holy Spirit, which were preached by the Methodists, 
were stigmatized as the effusions of a distempered brain, 
and their propagators as "false prophets," "wolves 
in sheep's clothing," and the pulpits rung with fearful 
warnings lest the " elect" should be deluded and de- 
stroyed by their means. And as to the doctrine of 
absolute unconditional predestination, which was the 
creed of the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and 
Baptists, it was repudiated by the Methodists, as both 
untrue in itself, and pernicious in its consequences. 
With these, therefore, who held and propagated this 
unscriptural doctrine, they could not unite ; and even 
if they had offered their services they would doubt- 
lessly have been rejected, unless they had at the same 
time abjured their peculiar doctrines. 

This then was the state of things at that time. 
Opposed and persecuted by some, ridiculed and de- 
spised by others, they were driven, by the force of 
these and other circumstances, to seek for redress 
where alone it could be found. Those clergymen, 
who, above all others, should have befriended them, 
were alike hostile to their own and the interests of 
their fellow creatures. Blind themselves, they were 
unqualified to lead others into the strait and narrow way. 

This is one ground for the necessity of the mea- 
sures which were pursued. Others, however, are not 
wanting to justify them. 

Mr. Wesley was a presbyter of the Church of 
England. As such he had no right, without the most 
urgent necessity, to exercise the power of ordination. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 119 

Although he was convinced, from a critical search 
into the records of antiquity, that the right of ordination 
belonged originally to the body of presbyters, yet, as 
a member of the English Church, he had agreed that 
this power should be, for reasons which were satis- 
factory to him at the time, vested in the bishops alone. 
Hence, so long as that church exercised jurisdiction 
in America, he refused to interfere, not because the 
thing was unlawful in itself, but because he did not 
feel at liberty to disturb the established order of things 
in his own church. But on the acknowledgment of 
the independence of these United States, by which 
not only the civil and political power of Great Britain 
was annihilated in this country, but also all ecclesi- 
astical jurisdiction withdrawn, the circumstances of the 
case were materially altered, and he therefore felt him- 
self, as he says, at full liberty, being no longer bound 
by his vows to the restrictive regulations of the Eng- 
lish establishment, to follow the example of the primi- 
tive church. The very arguments used by Bishop 
White to justify the organization of an Episcopal 
Church " without waiting for the succession," and 
those I have quoted from other Episcopal writers, 
were used by Mr. Wesley, to justify his proceedings 
in the premises ; and had they been denied, as we 
shall soon see Mr. Wesley was, help from other 
quarters, there can be no doubt that they would have 
proceeded to organize an Episcopal Church on the 
same principles, and have set up the plea of necessity, 
though it would not have been half so strong in their 
case as in ours, for a justification of their measures. 

4.. To all this it may be objected, that there was 
no necessity for the measure, because ordination might 
have been procured through a more regular channel. 



120 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

To this I answer, that it could not ; at least it could 
not without compromising the great principles of the 
gospel on which Methodism was founded, and to 
which it had been indebted for its success. Mr. 
Wesley tells us in his letter which was published in 
the last number, that he desired the " bishop of London 
to ordain one, but could not prevail." And there is a 
letter of Mr. Wesley's to the bishop of London touch- 
ing this subject, so full of tender feeling, deep piety, 
and anxious solicitude for the welfare of souls, and is 
moreover so confirmatory of the above assertion of 
his having been denied so small a request, that I 
doubt not that the reader will be both edified and 
pleased with its perusal. It is as follows : — 

TO BISHOP LOWTH. 

''August 10, 1780. 

" My Lord : — Some time since I received your 
lordship's favor, for which I return your lordship my 
sincere thanks. Those persons did not apply to the 
society, because they had nothing to ask of them. 
They wanted no salary for their minister ; they were 
themselves able and willing to maintain him. They 
therefore applied, by me, to your lordship, as members 
of the Church of England, and desirous so to continue, 
begging the favor of your lordship, after your lordship 
had examined him, to ordain a pious man who might 
officiate as their minister. 

" But your lordship observes, i There are three 
ministers in that country already.' True, my lord : 
but what are three, to watch over all the souls in that 
extensive country ? Will your lordship permit me to 
speak freely ? I dare not do otherwise. I am on the 
verge of the grave, and know not the hour when I 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 121 

shall drop into it. Suppose there were threescore 
of those missionaries in the country, could I in con- 
science recommend these souls to their care ? Do 
they take any care of their own souls ? If they do, 
(I speak it with concern !) I fear they are almost the 
only missionaries in America that do. My lord, I do 
not speak rashly : I have been in America ; and so 
have several with whom I have lately conversed. 
And both I and they know what manner of men the 
far greater part of these are. They are men who 
have neither the power of religion, nor the form ; men 
that lay no claim to piety, nor even decency. 

" Give me leave, my lord, to speak more freely 
still : perhaps it is the last time I shall trouble your 
lordship. I know your lordship's abilities and exten- 
sive learning : I believe, what is far more, that your 
lordship fears God. I have heard that your lordship 
is unfashionably diligent in examining the candidates 
for holy orders ; yea, that your lordship is generally at 
the pains of examining them yourself. Examining 
them f In what respect ? Why, whether they under- 
stand a little Latin and Greek, and can answer a few 
trite questions in the science of divinity ! Alas ! how 
little does this avail ? Does your lordship examine, 
whether they serve Christ or Belial ? whether they 
love God or the world ? whether they ever had any 
serious thoughts about heaven or hell ? whether they 
have any real desire to save their own souls, or the 
souls of others ? If not, what have they to do with 
holy orders ? and what will become of the souls com- 
mitted to their care ? 

" My lord, I do by no means despise learning : I 
know the value of it too well. But what is this, 
particularly in a Christian minister, compared to piety ? 

6 



122 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

What is it in a man that has no religion ? s As a jewel 
in a swine's snout.' 

" Some time since, I recommended to your lordship 
a plain man, whom I had known above twenty years ? 
as a person of deep, genuine piety, and of unblamable 
conversation. But he neither understood Greek nor 
Latin ; and he affirmed, in so many words, that he 
believed it was his duty to preach, whether he was 
ordained or no. I believe so too. What became of 
him since, I know not ; but I suppose he received 
Presbyterian ordination ; and I cannot blame him, if 
he did. He might think any ordination better than 
none. 

" I do not know that Mr. Hoskins had any favor to 
ask of the society. He asked the favor of your lord- 
ship to ordain him, that he might minister to a little 
flock in America. But your lordship did not see good 
to ordain him : but your lordship did see good to 
ordain, and send into America, other persons, who 
knew something of Greek and Latin ; but who knew 
no more of saving souls, than of catching whales, 

" In this respect also, I mourn for poor America : 
for the sheep scattered up and down therein. Part 
of them have no shepherds at all, particularly in the 
northern colonies,"* and the case of the rest is little 

* In this expression Mr. Wesley undoubtedly alluded to the 
ministers of the Church of England, as being none in some 
places " in America, particularly in the northern colonies 
because, as to the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Bap- 
tists, they were more numerous in the northern than the southern 
colonies. New-England especially, was much better supplied 
with the external ordinances of religion, each parish generally 
having its stated pastor, than any other part of our country ; 
though it must be admitted, at the same time, that pure religion 
was at a very low ebb even here, and that the distinguishing 
doctrines of the gospel, such as justifying faith in Jesus Christ, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 123 

belter, for their own shepherds pity them not. They 
cannot, for they have no pity on themselves. They 
take no thought or care about their own souls. 

" Wishing your lordship every blessing from the 
great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, I remain, my 
lord, your lordship's dutiful son and servant." 

From these facts it seems quite evident that even 
in this extremity Mr. Wesley would not have exercised 
the power of ordination himself, could he have pre- 
vailed on the bishop of London to do it, and at the 
same time allowed them their peculiar privileges as 
Methodist ministers. Not that he doubted his right 
to ordain ministers for his own connection, for he had 
already said that he considered himself as truly a 
bishop, in the Scriptural acceptation of that title, as 
any man in England ; but his hesitancy arose purely 
from prudential considerations, as a presbyter of the 
Church of England ; nor did his scruples end until he 
saw America, " by a very uncommon train of provi- 
dences," as he expresses himself, " totally disentangled 
both from the state and the English hierarchy," when 
all his doubts respecting the expediency of the mea- 
sure were removed ; and as he interfered with no 
man's right, none being either claimed or exercised in 
America, especially over the Methodist societies, he 

the witness and fruits of the Spirit, were seldom preaclied by the 
" standing order," and seldomer made a subject of experience 
hy the members of their churches. It is matter of gratitude to 
God, however, and of gratulation among the friends of experi- 
mental and practical godliness, that a brighter day has dawned 
upon New-England, as well as upon other portions of our be- 
loved country, and that revivals of religion, such revivals as 
will, when brought to the test, bear the scrutiny of a Scriptural 
examination, are now more prevalent among all orders. 



124 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

"judged it best" to give them such an organization a$ 
should enable them to " stand fast in that liberty 
wherewith God had so strangely made them free." 

5. This view of the subject exempts Mr. Wesley 
from that inconsistency with which his adversaries, 
and among others, his brother Charles, have accused 
him in these transactions. It is said that in organizing 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, he acted incon- 
sistently with his numerous avowals of his attachment 
to the English Church, and his oft-repeated declara- 
tions that his societies were members of that church, 
as well as his exhortations to them not to separate 
from it. To this I answer, that there was no incon- 
sistency between these professions and his actions in 
the premises. In regard to the American Methodists, 
the circumstances under which they existed were 
totally altered* They were no longer members of 
that church. It neither exercised nor claimed any 
jurisdiction over them, nor had it any right, either 
from the civil power, or from ecclesiastical relation, 
to claim any jurisdiction or control of any character 
whatever. But in England the circumstances were 
different. There the church existed as it ever had 
done, and the Methodists in that country were con- 
sidered members of the establishment. On account 
of these different circumstances of the two societies, 
Mr. Wesley acted in perfect consistency with his 
professions throughout, in still exhorting his people in 
England to cleave to the church, while he gave them 
a separate and independent organization where no 
such church existed. To have done otherwise, would 
have been the height of inconsistency. It would 
have been, in my humble opinion, a dereliction of 
duty ; for I have no doubt that he was as evidently 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



123 



called, by the providence of God, to do this thing for 
his American brethren, as he was to preach the gospel 
to sinners ; and this opinion is not derived from a 
superstitious reverence for the man, but from an in- 
spection of the facts in the case, and from the salutary- 
consequences which have followed the whole trans- 
action. Let the impartial reader compare the state 
of the two churches in question, and decide accordingly. 

To say that an alteration of circumstances does not 
furnish a reason for an alteration of conduct, is no less 
absurd than it would be to impeach the character of 
God because he changes his conduct toward an indi- 
vidual when that individual changes his character 
from a wicked to a righteous man, and vice versa. 
From these altered circumstances in the two countries, 
the relation of the Methodists in each was so changed 
toward "both the state and hierarchy," as fully to 
justify Mr. Wesley still to advise the Methodists in 
England to continue united with the church, and at 
the same time to provide the Methodists in America 
with the ministry and ordinances of Jesus Christ by a 
separate organization ; and in doing these two things, 
only opposite to each other in appearance — that is, so 
far only as the circumstances were variant — he mani- 
fested both his wisdom and consistency. 

6. But if the Methodist and Protestant Episco- 
palians in this country are not united, whose fault is 
it ? It appears by a letter from Dr. Coke to Bishop 
White, that a union was proposed by the former and 
rejected by the latter. I do not mention this fact with 
a view to justify the proposition — though I may take 
an opportunity hereafter to set that subject in rather 
a different point of light from what it has been repre- 
sented by writers on the opposite side of the question 



126 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

—but to show that in all likelihood, if a plan for a 
union between the two bodies had been proposed, it 
would have been rejected. If therefore, allowing this 
supposition to be correct, there be any evil arising from 
the separate organization, the fault, and of course the 
responsibility, rests on the shoulders of those who 
refused a union when offered. That Mr. Wesley 
earnestly desired and sought it, by his application to 
the bishop of London, is certain. That it was after- 
ward proffered by Dr. Coke and rejected, is equally 
certain. Let then the blame rest where it ought. 

The fact is, the Methodists were driven, from the 
force of circumstances— or rather, led, as I cannot but 
believe, by the beneficent providence of God to do as 
they did. And hence we adore that providence for 
the many blessings which have accompanied the 
humble labors of this church, and ardently pray that 
God may continue to smile upon our endeavors to 
promote his cause in the salvation of the world. 

I design in my next to consider some of the objec- 
tions which have been preferred against an episcopal 
form of church government, and to show that this is 
by no means inconsistent with the views I have at- 
tempted to sustain respecting presbyterial ordination. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 127 



NUMBER X. 

The Protestant Episcopal clergy not qualified for reformers ; 
nor does the mere act of consecration qualify a man for such a 
work — Distinction between the power of jurisdiction and power 
of order — Divers offices in the church — Lord King's error — Epis- 
copacy Scriptural — Successors of the apostles — In what particu- 
lars — In government — Apostle, what — Timothy and Titus assist- 
ants and successors of the apostles — Primitive episcopacy itine- 
rating — Episcopal government compatible with presbyterial ordi- 
nation. 

We have seen what was the general character of 
the Episcopal clergy at the conclusion of the revolu- 
tion. Now, suppose the country had been left to 
them, when would a reformation have been effected ? 
The testimony of Mr. Jarratt is conclusive upon this 
point. So far were they from favoring the pure gospel, 
that for preaching this he was opposed and persecuted 
to such a degree that he absented himself from their 
conventions, and would not fellowship their proceed- 
ings. And are we to suppose that they were any 
more favorable to the Methodist preachers ? Were 
these supposed successors of the apostles, who, by 
virtue of their lineal descent from them, claimed the 
exclusive right of administering the ordinances, quali- 
fied to instruct mankind in the important doctrines of 
salvation, and to reform sinners from the error of their 
ways 1 And yet in this state of things, Dr. Hawks 
thinks that the proceedings of Mr. Wesley and his 
associates were wholly unnecessary ! Why ? Why ! 
Because Dr. Seabury was in England at the time soli- 
citing consecration from the Scotch bishops. But 
suppose they had suspended proceedings on that ac- 
count, are we certain that Bishop Seabury would have 
ordained the Methodist preachers without requiring 



128 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



a renunciation of their Methodism Subsequent 
events prove that he would not. And even if he had, 
would it have been any more scriptural or valid than 
the one we have already received? Which is the 
most essential to a valid ministry, a call of God, mo- 
ral and spiritual qualifications, or the mere ceremony 

*It seems that about the same time Dr. Coke communi- 
cated with Bishop White on the subject of a union of the two 
churches, he addressed a letter to Bishop Seabury on the same 
subject. To this letter I am not aware that Bishop Seabury 
ever deigned to return an answer, It is not therefore at all 
probable that he would have lent his official sanction to the 
establishment of Methodism by ordaining its ministers. 

Here I cannot but notice an objection which has been brought 
against Dr. Coke by writers in the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
because he expressed his regrets to Bishop Seabury for advising 
the Methodists to separate from the church. This objection is 
preferred against Dr. Coke for the purpose of proving that he 
doubted the validity of his own credentials as a superintendent 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and regretted its establish- 
ment. It seems somewhat surprising that these writers cannot 
distinguish between Methodism in England and Methodism in 
America. On Dr. Coke's return to England, after having 
assisted in the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
he hastily and unadvisedly recommended a separation of the 
Methodists in England from the establishment. This very much 
displeased Mr. Wesley and the greater portion of the English 
Methodists. They therefore reproved him for this act of im- 
prudence. He acknowledged his fault and they forgave him, 
This was the error which he tells Bishop Seabury he had com- 
mitted , and which he acknowledged before three thousand 
people in Dublin, and in some other places. 

But does he hereby acknowledge that either his own ordina- 
tion or that of those who had received it at his hands, was inva- 
lid J By no means. Neither did he mean to say that the or- 
ganization of the Methodist Episcopal Church was an error in 
itself, but regretted that a union had not been effected. See 
this subject more fully cleared up, and the conduct of Dr. Coke 
vindicated, in Number xii. 

The writer who has called forth this note has intimated, as 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



129 



of ordination ? Does the ceremony of ordination make 
a man a minister of Jesus Christ, who is destitute of 
those other prerequisites ? Is consecration in any- 
particular branch of the church of Christ any thing 
more than a recognition that the individual consecrated 
has been " called by the Holy Ghost to take upon 

a reproach upon Mr. Wesley, that he would himself have been 
a bishop, could he have attained that high office. Without 
insisting that there is no fact in the history of Wesley on which 
this imputation can be justly founded, and, therefore, is a mere 
groundless conjecture, I would ask, allowing it to be true, is it 
any impeachment of that great and good man's character \ 
Must every presbyter who may " desire the office of a bishop," 
be classed among unholy aspirants for office ? What then be-, 
comes of Bishops Seabury and White, and, indeed, all others 
who may have manifested a similar desire I Did they not 
desire, and most diligently seek, for the office in the Protestant 
Episcopal Church 1 I allow, indeed, that a novice may be 
actuated by a criminal ambition after this high office, and may 
thence adopt improper means to obtain it. He may cringe, and 
bow, and put on popular airs to attain the object of his ambitious 
desires, and thus make himself obnoxious to the censures of the 
wise and good ; but it no more follows from this that a holy and 
pious man, who is otherwise competent to the office, may not 
desire it from the purest motives, than it does that a faithful 
preacher of the gospel may not, from a simple wish to enlarge 
the sphere of his usefulness, desire the office of an elder. 

It is, however, denied, that John Wesley ever desired or 
sought for any higher office in the Church of England than that 
of a presbyter. As to the Methodists, he could have aspired 
to no greater authority over them than that which he possessed. 
He was the head of the connection, and as such gave law and 
direction to the entire body. What more could he desire ? 

As to the silly story about his applying to Erasmus, the 
Greek bishop, to ordain him a bishop, it may be ranked among 
the fables of Tobit and his angel Raphael, concerning whom it 
is written that the latter taught Tobit the art of driving the evil 
spirit from his marriage bed by the smoke from the heart and 
liver of a fish ! John Wesley never made such application to 
Erasmus. Mr. Moore has fully refuted this silly report, 

6* 



130 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

him that office ?" And suppose the candidate him- 
self and his ordainers were under a mistake in respect 
to his having been so called, does the mere ceremony 
of ordination make him a minister of Jesus Christ ? 

On the whole, I cannot but think that the facts and 
circumstances of the times fully justified Mr. Wesley 
and his associates in their proceedings, and that what 
they did was absolutely called for, and therefore, if 
they had refrained, from motives of deference to the 
opinions of those who opposed them, they would have 
incurred a fearful responsibility, as persons unmindful 
of providential indications. 

It may, however, be said by some, that if the posi- 
tion I have laid down be sustained, then an episcopal 
form of church government is overthrown. This, 
however, by no means follows. 

To settle this question, we must distinguish be- 
tween the power of ordination and the power of juris- 
diction, as well as between the former and the several 
official relations which a minister may hold to the 
church. The power of ordination, as I have abun- 
dantly proved, was vested in the eldership, while the 
power of jurisdiction was not necessarily restricted to 
them, but might be committed to others also who were 
superior to them in office, and who exercised a general 
superintendence over the whole church. Thus the 
twelve apostles undoubtedly exercised a general juris- 
diction over the whole church, appointed inferior offi- 
cers, and distributed among them their several tasks. 
In the primitive church there were " diversities of 
gifts," " differences of administrations," and " diversi- 
ties of operations" — all " by the same Spirit." " To 
one was given the word of wisdom ; to another the 
word of knowledge." And thus " God hath set some 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 131 



m the church, first apostles" — as the supreme rulers ; 
" secondarily, prophets ; thirdly, teachers ; after that, 
miracles ; then gifts of healings, helps, governments, 
diversities of tongues," 1 Cor. xii, 4-28. What the 
specific duties of each officer in the church were, it 
may be difficult to determine ; nor were they, I ap- 
prehend, specifically defined, but every one was left 
to exercise them, in subordination one to another, and 
under the jurisdiction of the apostles, as circumstances 
might dictate to be necessary and expedient. But to 
infer that, because these several officers are enume- 
rated in the Holy Scriptures, there were, therefore, so 
many distinct orders, in the ecclesiastical sense of that 
term, created such by prayer and imposition of hands, 
appears to me extremely absurd, as it w r ould give 
us not three orders only, but many, all equally essen- 
tial for the organization of the church. Without, 
therefore, resorting to this erroneous view of the sub- 
ject, w r e may admit that a general oversight of the 
church w r as exercised by the apostles, and under their 
jurisdiction, in a more restricted sphere, by the evan- 
gelists, presbyters, deacons, and deaconesses, all of 
w^hom being responsible for the faithful discharge of 
their several duties, first to each other, and finally to 
God the judge of all. This was undoubtedly an epis- 
copal form of government, and not presbyter ial, ac- 
cording to the common acceptation of that word — that 
is, it involved a general oversight by a set of superior 
officers, who were by no means restricted in their 
jurisdiction to a single congregation, as are those who 
contend for a parity of ministerial order and power of 
jurisdiction. 

And here I may notice what I think to be an error 
in Lord King's Account of the Primitive Church, 



132 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



While he very justly contends that each congregation 
managed its own affairs, under the direction of a sin- 
gle pastor, denominated interchangeably bishop or 
presbyter, he seems to overlook the higher and more 
extended jurisdiction of the apostles and itinerating 
evangelists, whose actual oversight of the whole church 
constituted a general superintendency above that of a 
congregational or presbyterial mode of administra- 
tion. Hence this most estimable author, to whose 
labors we are much indebted for a correct view of 
many particulars relating to the early history and or- 
ganization of the church, leaned much farther toward 
the congregational mode of church government, than 
the Scriptural representation of this subject would seem 
to warrant. While we may admit, what he contends 
for, that each congregation managed its own internal 
affairs, under the supervision of their resident bishop, 
without any interference from a neighboring bishop 
and congregation possessing only the same rights and 
privileges ; we may, in perfect consistency with this 
admission, allow that over and above these bishops 
and congregations, the apostles, and, in their absence, 
the itinerating evangelists, exercised a general over- 
sight of the whole church, thus establishing a prece- 
dent for a proper episcopal government, more in ac- 
cordance with the modern episcopal churches than it 
is with either congregational or presbyterial parity. 
Hence it will be perceived that we stand at an equal 
distance from the ministerial parity of those who allow 
of but one order and of a congregational jurisdic- 
tion, and from those who affirm the existence of a 
third order, by divine appointment, as being necessa- 
rily associated with an episcopal jurisdiction. The 
power of jurisdiction is one thing, and the power of 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



133 



order another. For the very persons who conferred 
orders by the imposition of hands, were often much 
more restricted in their sphere of government and the 
extent of their jurisdiction, than even some of those 
upon whom they laid their hands, in obedience to the 
dictates of the Holy Ghost. This has, I think, been 
made evident by scriptural references heretofore pro- 
duced.* 

But while this extended jurisdiction is allowed to 
the apostles, it is contended by those who deny all 
forms of episcopal, as distinguished from presbyterial 
or congregational government, that they had not, nor 
should have, any successors in office. Now, I think 
they had successors, and that those successors have 
been, and may be continued in the church, so far as its 
general superintendency and government is concerned. 
In some respects, to be sure, they had no successors. 

* We may see this same regulation exemplified in modern 
episcopal churches. While they admit a general superintend- 
ency in the episcopacy, each parish, station, or circuit manages 
its own internal affairs, in the reception, trial, and expulsion of 
church members, in providing for the temporal wants of the 
church, building houses of worship, &c, all under a set of general 
rules which apply equally to each section of the church, and all 
brought under the inspection of a general oversight. Nor is 
there any incongruity here. On the contrary, so long as each 
member and officer, whether he be called class leader, steward, 
trustee, church warden, or vestryman, local or travelling preach- 
er, deacon, or elder, curate, presbyter, or rector, conducts 
according to his prescribed duty in a suitable subordination, 
we may behold the harmonious movement of a well-balanced 
government, bound together in Christian union, and labor- 
ing together for the good of the whole church, and for the 
conversion of the world. Over this family, thus organized.. Je- 
sus Christ reigns as supreme Head, while its several members 
move, each in his sphere, in obedience to his will. This is 
especially the case when they are actuated by his Spirit. 



134 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



1. In respect to plenary inspiration, and the work- 
ing of miracles. The apostles were sent, not only to 
preach the gospel — a work common to all ministers 
of Jesus Christ— but more especially under the dic- 
tation of the Holy Spirit to deliver precepts, to explain 
and declare unto the people doctrines and promises, 
in an authoritative style, so that whatever was thus 
delivered was binding on all as the commands of God. 
And what was thus delivered in the nature of a divine 
command, or ordinance, is perpetually binding upon 
the church, as much so upon us as upon the primitive 
Christians. In this respect they have no successors, 
and for the very good reason, that they are not needed ; 
for what could they deliver of a more binding and au- 
thoritative character than that which we already have ; 
hence, were such sent they could but repeat what 
those inspired apostles have left upon record. A suc- 
cession of inspired men, therefore, is wholly unneces- 
sary. The same may be said of miracles, properly 
so called ; the necessity for them having ceased, their 
repetition is uncalled for, and would be entirely useless. 

2. The same may be said of their being eye wit- 
nesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as well as 
to his life, sufferings, and death. In order to establish 
the Christian religion firmly upon the Rock of eternal 
truth, it was necessary not only to identify the charac- 
ter of Jesus of Nazareth with the predictions found 
in the Jewish prophets respecting the birth, miracles, 
sufferings, and death of the promised Messiah, but 
more especially to furnish incontestable evidences of 
his resurrection from the dead ; for by this grand 
event he was " declared to be the Son of God, with 
power" — with a power of demonstration so direct and 
palpable, as to bear down all resistance from opposing 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 135 

forces. Now, to attest this fact, so vitally connected 
with the truth of the Christian system, the apostles 
were " eye witnesses ;" and hence, when they were 
assembled to fill up the vacancy occasioned by the 
apostacy and death of Judas Iscariot, it was considered 
a prime qualification that the one to be adopted into 
the college, as they affirmed, should "be a witness 
with us of his resurrection," Acts i, 15—22. With 
these exceptions, namely, delivering inspired doctrines 
and precepts, working miracles, and being eye wit- 
nesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I know not 
that there was any thing peculiar to the office of the 
apostles, but what might be transmitted to their suc- 
cessors in the ministry. I have said eye witnesses- — 
for all succeeding ministers and Christians who were 
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, are denominated 
the witnesses of this fact, because the gift of the Holy 
Spirit, particularly upon the day of pentecost, was a 
most demonstrative proof, not only that Jesus had 
risen from the tomb, but that he actually lived at the 
right hand of the Father. 

To say that because succeeding ministers in the 
church were not endued with these extraordinary gifts, 
and could not, in the nature of things, testify, from 
ocular demonstration, to the resurrection of Christ, 
that therefore the apostles could have no successors 
in office, appears to me to be assuming too much, 
On the same principle it might be affirmed that Wil- 
liam the Conqueror had no successors on the throne 
of England, as king of Great Britain, because none of 
them was crowned under the same circumstances ; 
and that General Washington could have no succes- 
sors as president of these United States, merely be- 
cause no one after him was inducted into office as the 



136 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

deliverer of his country from foreign oppression. 
These both have had successors in office, possessing 
all the prerogatives belonging to their high stations, 
notwithstanding neither could be hailed as the con- 
queror of his country's enemies, because this qualifi- 
cation is not essential to their office as king or presi- 
dent. So, although the successors of the apostles 
were not, and could not be, eye witnesses to the resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ, nor are empowered to work 
miracles and deliver inspired precepts — the necessity 
of these having ceased with the circumstances which 
called for their exercise — yet, so far as the govern- 
ment of the church was concerned, and a supreme 
jurisdiction was needful for its unity and prosperity, 
they unquestionably had successors ; it was, however, 
a succession of jurisdictional powers, and not of the 
exclusive powers of ordination ; nor was it, as I ap- 
prehend, of such a nature that there can be no Chris- 
tian church and valid ordinances without it ; for I am 
not prepared thus to anathematize all who dissent from 
us in this particular. 

If it be inquired who the immediate successors of 
the apostles were, I answer, that, among others, Timo- 
thy and Titus, and probably Epaphroditus, must be 
numbered. These, in the lifetime of the apostles, ac- 
cording to the uniform testimony of ecclesiastical wri- 
ters and commentators, were their assistants, doing 
that in the absence of the apostles, which they would 
have done themselves had they been present. This 
point is so plain that I need not spend time to prove 
it. And that they were considered inferior to the 
apostles, during the lives of the latter, and therefore 
acted under their direction and control, is most mani- 
fest from the epistles of St. Paul to Timothy and 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 137 

Titus, as well as from the nature of their office as 
apostolic assistants. 

With the Protestant Episcopalians, therefore, we 
have no controversy on this subject. They may, if 
they please, call these men apostles, or more properly 
evangelists, for a name alters not the nature of the 
thing. There is nothing in the simple name anoarolog, 
apostle, which signifies, simply, one sent, any more 
than there is in the name of missionary, from the 
Latin rnitto, to send, to designate the exalted dignity 
of their character. This dignity arose, not simply 
from their name, but from the important and deeply 
interesting character of the message with which they 
were sent, and the manner in which they discharged 
the high trusts committed to them by the Head of the 
church. But when the " high church" Episcopalians 
plead that, because this extended power of jurisdiction 
was committed to the apostles and their successors, 
the power of ordination was also confined exclusively 
to them, by virtue of their office, and from them trans- 
mitted down through a third order in the church, I 
beg leave to record my dissent, and appeal to the nu- 
merous and strong testimonies adduced in the preced- 
ing numbers. It is equally clear, I think, from the 
same testimony, that those denominated bishops and 
presbyters, in the apostolic days, and with whom the 
power of ordination was originally vested, were not 
the successors of the apostles ; because, beside other 
reasons which might be urged, it is manifest that their 
pastoral jurisdiction was limited to a single congrega- 
tion, the boundaries of their charge being denominated 
in the apostolical fathers, irapotKoc, fr° m ^apa, by or over, 
and olkoc, a house, whence our word parish, because 
their several charges were contiguous to each other, 



138 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



or in the immediate neighborhood ; whereas the dis- 
trict of a bishop, in after times, was called Aioiktjois, 
which comes from a root designating a conductor of 
public affairs, and even a minister of state ; so called, 
probably, because the bishop, after the apostolic 
lights had ceased to burn, imitated those state minis- 
ters in the extent of his jurisdiction, and his lordly 
superiority over his brethren ; and hence the district 
of country over which he presided was called a diocese, 
and the incumbent a diocesan, in contradistinction from 
simple parishes, and presbyters. This restricted na- 
ture of their charge, I say, proves that these overseers 
or bishops were not the successors of the apostles. 
And hence it follows, that if Timothy was, as our op- 
ponents contend, the bishop of Ephesus, and Titus the 
bishop of Crete, they could not have been the succes- 
sors of the apostles after they were dead, nor their 
itinerating assistants while they lived ; but Timothy 
and Titus were such ; and therefore they were not the 
bishops exclusively of those places. 

The minor proposition alone needs proof : — 
1. That they were the assistants of the apostles 
while the former lived, is evident from the language 
with which the apostle Paul addressed them. Thus 
he addresses " Timothy, his own son in the faith." 
" I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I 
went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some 
that they teach none other doctrine." " These things 
write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly ; 
but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how to be- 
have thyself in the church of God," 1 Tim. i, 2, 3, 
and ii, 14, 15. From these words it is manifest that 
St. Paul left Timothy in Ephesus during the absence 
of the former, for the purpose of supplying his lack 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 139 

of service, requesting him there to remain until the 
apostle himself should return and attend in person to 
the affairs of the church in that place. Can any thing 
be more evident from this than that Timothy acted as 
the assistant of the apostle, doing that in his absence 
which St. Paul would have done himself had he been 
present ? And this also is a proof that Timothy was 
not the stationed bishop of Ephesus, restricting his 
labors to that city only ; for in that case there would 
have been no necessity for St. Paul to have besought 
him to remain there until he himself might return, be- 
cause that, as a matter of course, would have been 
the constant scene of his labors had he been their 
settled bishop. Timothy, therefore, was the assistant 
of the apostle, itinerating from place to place, as the 
exigencies of the times and the wants of the church 
might dictate to be necessary, but always under the 
direction of his father in the gospel. 

That Titus sustained a similar relation to the apos- 
tle, and to the church at large, is evident from several 
parts of St. Paul's epistle to him. He says to him, 
" For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou should- 
est set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain 
elders in every city, as I had appointed thee," chap, 
i, 5. This is so similar to the charge addressed to 
Timothy, assigning the same reasons for leaving Titus 
in Crete as he did for leaving Timothy in Ephesus, 
that the same inferences follow r in this as in the former 
case ; and the whole tenor of the epistle shows that 
Titus acted under the direction of the apostle ; for he 
says, in the words above quoted, that he had appointed 
Titus to this special service. And that he was no 
settled bishop in the island of Crete, is manifest from 
the following words : — "When I shall send Artemas 



140 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me to 
Nicopolis ; for I have determined there to winter. 
Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey 
diligently, that nothing be wanting, chap, iii, 12, 13, 
It appears from hence that Titus was to remain at 
Crete, doing " the work of an evangelist" only until 
he was relieved by the coming of Artemas or Tychi- 
cus, who probably were employed in a similar work, 
one of whom was to take his place in the superintend- 
ency of the church in that island. These facts prove 
that Titus was neither a located bishop at Crete, nor 
an independent diocesan bishop at all, for he acted 
under the direction of the apostle Paul, was subject to 
his removal at pleasure, and to have his place and 
office supplied by others whom the apostle should 
send for that purpose. 

That these same persons were the successors of 
the apostles is equally evident. In his second epistle 
to Timothy, after giving him divers instructions in 
respect to his behavior as a minister of the Lord Jesus, 
and to the doctrine he was to teach, the apostle speaks 
of his departure as being near at hand, ch. iv, ver. 5, 6, 
as a reason why Timothy should use all diligence to 
" do the work of an evangelist," and to " make full 
proof of his ministry," that he might thereby be able, 
after the departure of his father in the gospel, to take 
his place in the church. And finally he gives to 
Timothy this solemn charge : — " And the things that 
thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the 
same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able 
to teach others also," ch. ii, 2. And for the purpose 
of completing the code of instructions necessary to 
guide his conduct after the apostle should have been 
" offered up" as a martyr to the truth, he requests 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



141 



Timothy, as he did Titus also, to " do his diligence 
to come to him before winter." These all indicate 
that the apostle designed these two eminent evangelists 
to succeed him in the government of the church, as 
general superintendents. 

Here then was a proper itinerating episcopacy, 
clothed with ample pow T ers to superintend the affairs 
of the church, " to set things in order, and to ordain 
elders in every city," not resembling the restricted 
jurisdiction of either the congregational or presby- 
terial pastors, nor yet that of the episcopacy of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church. That it did not re- 
semble the former is self-evident ; and that it did not 
the latter, appears from this single consideration, the 
Protestant Episcopal bishops are entirely independent 
of each other, and each is confined in his jurisdiction 
to his own diocese ; whereas those primitive evan- 
gelists were subject to an interchange of labors, to 
removals from one city and country to another, nor 
have we any evidence that the extent of each one's 
jurisdiction was defined by geographical boundaries. 

This sort of government, however, is sufficient, I 
think, to justify the establishment of an episcopal form, 
whether all points of resemblance can be made out or 
not. And hence, although the power of ordination 
was possessed by the presbyters, the power of juris- 
diction extended beyond the limits of their individual 
charges, and was exercised for the good of the whole 
church. Does not this furnish a precedent for the 
justification of those churches which have deemed it 
expedient to adopt an episcopal mode of church 
government carried out in a general superintendency ? 
And I need hardly inform the reader that this general 
superintendency is provided for in the organization 



142 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and that its 
practical workings have thus far exerted a most 
beneficial influence upon the interests of religion. 

Now all I wish to infer from this presentation of 
the subject is, that an episcopal form of church 
government is perfectly compatible with presbyterial 
ordination, and is therefore allowable on the principles 
I have attempted to establish. I say allowable — for 
I am very far from contending that it is so prescribed 
in Scripture as to make it universally binding on all 
Christian churches, or that it must be established in 
precisely the same form under all circumstances, and 
in all countries ; because I am not able to prove that 
the apostles so established it in every country wherein 
they planted churches, nor that they intended it should 
be precisely the same in every period of the church. 
It is sufficient for my purpose that the conduct of the 
apostles in this respect furnishes a precedent for 
episcopacy. If this is made apparent, as I think it 
is, then is our church removed beyond censure for 
adopting this mode in preference to others, and Mr. 
Wesley and his associates are hereby exempted from 
all inconsistency in using the power of presbyters to 
organize an episcopal form of church government. 
The church of Alexandria was episcopal, though 
ordination was conferred by presbyters. 

I design in my next to consider some of the most 
popular and prominent objections to the position I 
have herein attempted to sustain. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



143 



NUMBER XI. 

Distinction between what is essential and what is simply expe- 
dient — Presbyters, evangelists, and apostles, ordained indiscrimi- 
nately — Objections answered — Mr. Wesley's letter to Mr. Asbury 
— In what sense Mr. Wesley would not be a bishop — Did not 
object to an episcopacy — Was misinformed respecting Mr. Asbury 
— Mr. Asbury's refutation of the imputation of pride, &c. — His 
conduct vindicated. 

The reader will bear in mind a sentiment I have 
endeavored all along to inculcate, which is, that while 
some things are essential to constitute an original 
church of Christ, others may be safely left to be 
regulated by the principles of expediency, under the 
direction of a sound Christian discretion. Thus, there 
can be no doubt that God has appointed that his 
church should be so governed that all things may " be 
done decently and in order that his ministers should 
derive their authority from him to preach ; and that 
they should ordain others to aid them in extending 
the Redeemer's kingdom among men, and to succeed 
them in their holy office ; all this may be admitted 
without resorting to the dogma that he has ordered 
them to establish such a mode of government pre- 
cisely, and that all who dissent from this particular 
mode are intruders into his fold. These principles, 
I think, are clearly made out from Scripture and pri- 
mitive usage. Thus a government may be episcopal 
in its form, without supposing that a third order is 
essentially necessary to constitute a valid ministry. 
And, moreover, the power of ordination may be com- 
mitted to a third order, (I use the term order here 
for convenience' sake, to avoid circumlocution, and 
not as implying an order by divine appointment,) if 
the body of presbyters see fit thus to restrain their 



144 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

own exercise of this power, without any violation of 
a divine precept, or any dereliction of duty. For 
while it is most manifest that the right of ordination 
did originally rest in the presbyters in apostolic days, 
it is equally manifest that Paul and Barnabas exer- 
cised the same power. Hence we read, Acts xiv, 
23, that they " ordained them elders in every church" 
where they went, after their own consecration to this 
sacred work, preaching the word of life. But whether 
they did this by virtue of their office as apostles, or 
simply because they were so authorized in common 
with other elders — for so the apostles themselves were 
sometimes styled — it may be as difficult as it is un- 
essential to determine. Assertions, unsupported by 
Scripture or authentic history bearing on this point, 
amount to just nothing. It is sufficient for our pur- 
pose that Paul and Barnabas ordained elders, and 
that Timothy and Titus, as assistants to the apostles, 
were instructed to do the same, and the same did also 
the presbyters ; and hence we are authorized to be- 
lieve that this power was exercised by either the one 
or the other, doubtless as circumstances called for it 
in particular places, and at particular times ; and 
therefore it was not confined to either the one or the 
other. 

Having premised thus much, I proceed to answer 
some objections which have been made to the Epis- 
copal form of government as established among us. 

1. The first is taken from what Mr. Wesley him- 
self has objected to our calling ourselves episcopal. 
To sustain this objection, the following letter to Mr. 
Asbury has been quoted with a sort of triumph, as 
though Mr. Wesley himself wished to pull down with 
one hand what he had built up with the other : — 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



145 



" TO THE REV. FRANCIS ASBURY. 

"London, Sept. 20, 1788. 

"There is, indeed, a wide difference between the 
relation wherein you stand to the Americans, and the 
relation wherein I stand to all the Methodists : I am, 
under God, the father of the whole family. There- 
fore I naturally care for you all in a manner no other 
person can do. Therefore I, in a measure, provide 
for you all : for the supplies which Dr. Coke provides 
for you, he would not provide were it not for me — 
were it not that I not only permit him to collect, but 
also support him in so doing. 

" But in one point, my, dear brother, I am a little 
afraid both you and the doctor differ from me. I 
study to be little ; you study to be great : I creep ; 
you strut along. I found a school ; you a college ! 
Nay, and call it after your own names. O bew T are ! 
Do not seek to be something. Let me be nothing, 
and 6 Christ be all in all.' 

" One instance of this, of your greatness, has given 
mc great concern. How can you, how dare you 
suffer yourself to be called bishop ? I shudder and 
start at the very thought ! Men may call me a knave 
or a fool ; a rascal, a scoundrel, and I am content : 
but they shall never, by my consent, call me a bishop. 
For my sake, for God's sake, for Christ's sake, put a 
full end to this. Let the Presbyterians do what they 
please— but let the Methodists know their calling 
better. 

" Thus, my dear Franky, I have told you all that 
is in my heart : and let this, when I am no more 
seen, bear witness how sincerely I am your affec- 
tionate friend and brother, J. Wesley." 

7 



146 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

That this letter, though it contains a very severe 
rebuke, is full of tender feeling, is manifest. At the 
same time that it administers a caustic reproof to Mr. 
Asbury, for allowing himself to be called a bishop, it 
evinces all the tenderness of a father who is anxious 
for the welfare of his children, But the question 
arises, Did Bishop Asbury deserve this severe rebuke ? 
I think not. And I think, moreover, that had not 
Mr. Wesley been misinformed in respect to some 
things, and especially in regard to some actions of 
Mr. Asbury, the former would never have used this 
language to his son in the gospel. While Mr. Asbury 
bore this reproof with becoming meekness, he was 
conscious not only that it was unmerited, but also 
that Mr. Wesley's mind had become biassed against 
him from the misrepresentations of others. This he 
alludes to in his journal. And although there is no 
man I reverence more highly than I do Mr. Wesley, 
yet I cannot but think that, in this instance, he in- 
dulged himself in too much asperity, and that he 
seemed to forget, in the moment of his displeasure, 
that Mr. Asbury, if he were a bishop, was one of 
Mr. Wesley's own creation, and therefore, instead of 
being censured, should have been commended. Nor 
can I help believing that if Mr. Wesley could have 
seen and borne witness to the self-denying life, the 
laborious services he performed, the plainness of his 
dress and manners, as well as the indefatigable per- 
severance in the cause of Christ all along exhibited 
by Bishop Asbury, he would have exchanged his dis- 
satisfaction for an admiration of his character and 
conduct. 

But was it the thing itself with which Mr. Wesley 
was dissatisfied? I think not. With the name of 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 147 

bishop he had been accustomed to associate great 
pomp and ceremony, a high style of living, and a 
lordly demeanor over others. And so difficult is it 
to dissociate in our minds things that we have been 
accustomed from our earliest recollections to connect 
together, that it seems Mr. Wesley could not think 
of a bishop without connecting with that title all the 
external pomp and costly splendor with which it stood 
associated in the established church of Great Britain. 
And being informed, or, rather, mis-informed, that 
" Frank Asbury" had " become ambitious/' was 
" thirsting for dominion," " could not bear an equal, 
much less a superior," and a thousand other such 
silly tales, which could be traced to no better source 
than envy and jealousy, Mr, Wesley verily thought 
it his duty to interfere, and give him this severe 
rebuke in time, before his love of " greatness" and 
his " strutting" should prove his ruin. This I believe 
to be the true secret of this whole business. Mr. 
Wesley was three thousand miles from the scene of 
action. He could, therefore, only see through other 
men's eyes ; and there were those near him at that 
time who had been disappointed in America, and who 
sought to ingratiate themselves into the good graces 
of that great and good man by depreciating others. 
Hence the letter above recited ; and hence also the 
necessity of a vindication. 

But the opponents of Methodist episcopacy have 
inferred from this letter that Mr. Wesley never design- 
ed to establish an episcopal church in this country, 
and have even gone so far as to aver that the writers 
of the preface to our Book of Discipline have uttered 
a falsehood by saying that he took measures to secure 
it. This slander would hardly be worthy of serious 



148 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

refutation had not some persons been beguiled into a 
belief of it by the subtle insinuations of those who 
possessed the means of knowing better. But that 
the objection might have some show of plausibility, 
the name which he gave to the first bishops of our 
church, namely, superintendents, has been adduced 
in support of it. This, however, is a most pitiful 
plea — a most slender foundation to rest such an as- 
sumption upon. The simple question is, Did Mr. 
Wesley invest Dr. Coke with power over deacons 
and presbyters ? He certainly did. Did he also in- 
tend that both Dr. Coke and Mr. Asbury should exer- 
cise a jurisdiction over the whole Methodist Church 
in America ? He certainly did. Were not episcopal 
powers thus invested in them ? They certainly were. 
That is, they were authorized to exercise a general 
oversight — not an unlimited, despotic, and unrestrained 
oversight — but a general oversight, under prescribed 
rules for the regulation of their conduct — over private 
members, preachers, deacons, and presbyters— and 
was not that an episcopal jurisdiction, to all intents 
and purposes, as much as if they had been called 
bishops ? 

After all, what is there in the title bishop,* when 
Scripturally understood, any more than superintendent? 
at which wise men need to take offence ? Episcopos? 
Greek, Episcopus, Latin, bischop, Anglo-Saxon, all 
signifying an overseer, of any sort, are of the same 
import as superintendent, from the Latin, super, over, 
and intender, to take care of — and hence a super- 
intendent is one that takes a general direction or 
oversight of any concern ; and in an ecclesiastical 



* See this word more fully explained in No. IV. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 149 

sense means just the same as bishop does among the 
Episcopalians. It was therefore simply for the altera- 
tion of this very expressive title that Mr. Wesley 
was displeased ; and hence it is manifest that a man 
of his enlarged views would never have made the 
objections he did unless his mind had been biassed 
in the manner before suggested. 

But we have farther evidence of Mr, Wesley's 
intention in regard to the sort of government which 
should be established here, in the Prayer Book he 
prepared for the Sunday, and other occasional ser- 
vices, for the American Methodists. This Prayer 
Book, abridged from that used by the English Church, 
a copy of which I have in my possession, was pre- 
pared by Mr. Wesley previously to the sailing of Dr. 
Coke for America, and was brought over by him most 
probably in sheets. In this book there are three 
forms of consecration : 

1. For superintendents, 

2. For elders. 

3. For deacons. 

These are all separate and distinct, the same as used 
by the English and Protestant Episcopal Churches, 
with the exception of substituting the title of super* 
intendent for that of bishop. This is all the difference ; 
and therefore it is denied that Mr. Wesley ever object- 
ed to our being an episcopal church, the above letter 
to the contrary notwithstanding. Is it, indeed, to be 
supposed that he would with the same breath consti- 
tute Dr. Coke a superintendent, and instruct him to 
constitute others superintendents over a church made 
up of presbyters, deacons, and preachers, besides the 
private members, and not intend it to be episcopal in 
its form ? The thing is too absurd to need refutation* 



150 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

There is a letter from Bishop Asbury, dated Feb- 
ruary 12, 1791, addressed to Dr. Coke, containing 
sentiments in such perfect contrast to the feelings and 
views attributed to him by Mr. Wesley, that I think 
my readers will be pleased with the following extracts 
from it. Whether the writer had any reference to 
what Mr. Wesley had said to him or not, I cannot 
tell ; but it is such a perfect vindication of himself 
from those exceptions taken by Mr. Wesley, that it 
amounts to a complete justification of himself, and 
must be so considered by the many now living who 
can testify to its truth. He says,— 

" I have served the Church of Christ upward of 
twenty-five years in Europe and America. All. the 
property I have gained is two old horses, the con- 
stant companions of my toil, six, if not seven thousand 
miles every year. Where we have no ferry boats ? 
they swim the rivers. As to clothing, I am nearly 
the same as at first ; neither have I silver or gold, 
nor any property. My confidential friends know that 
I lie not in these matters. I am resolved not to claim 
any property in the printing concern. Increase as it 
may, it will be sacred to invalid preachers, the col- 
lege, and the schools. I would not have my name 
mentioned as doing, having, or being any thing 
but dust. 

" I soar, indeed, but it is over the tops of the 
highest mountains we have, which may vie with the 
Alps. I creep sometimes upon my hands and knees 
up the slippery ascent ; and to serve the church, and 
the ministers of it, what I gain is many a reflection 
from both sides the Atlantic. I have lived long 
enough to be loved and hated, to be admired and feared* 



AN* ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 151 



" If it were not for the suspicions of some, and the 
pride and ignorance of others, I am of opinion I could 
make provision by collections, profits on books, and 
donations in land, to take two thousand children under 
the best plan of education ever known in this country. 
The Lord begins to smile on our Kingswood school. 
One promising young man is gone forth, another is 
ready ; and several have been under awakenings. 
None so healthy and orderly as our children ; and 
some promise great talents for learning. The ob- 
stinate and ignorant oppose among preachers and peo- 
ple ; while the' judicious for good sense and piety, in 
church and state, admire and applaud. I am, with 
most dutiful respect, as ever, your son in the gospel, 

" Francis Asbury." 

Here is an instance of his strutting, namely, 
creeping upon his hands and knees, while ascending 
the steep and slippery mountains ! And as to his 
name being associated with the college, he tells us 
that he wished it not mentioned as " being any thing 
but dust." Those who were honored with an ac- 
quaintance with that apostolic man know full well 
that none could surpass him for disinterestedness, for 
a perfect abhorrence of all pompous display, for high 
sounding titles, and worldly honors. He therefore 
bore the name of bishop simply because it was ex^ 
pressive of the office he held, as a convenient term 
of distinction, and not as the insignia of lordly supe- 
riority. Bishop Asbury was an example in word and 
doctrine, in spirit and practice, as well as in external 
appearance, in dress and manner, (and much more than 
all, in " labors more abundant," " enduring hardness 
&s a good soldier of Jesus Christ,") of a primitive 



152 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

evangelist, constantly devoting himself to the service 
of the church, travelling from six to seven thousand 
miles annually, and preaching generally every day ! 
And of the purity of his intention, of the uprightness 
of his deportment, as well as of the singular worth 
of his character, Mr. Wesley himself bears ample 
testimony, and in no instance more emphatically than, 
in the fact that he selected him to be a joint super- 
intendent with Dr. Coke, over the American Metho- 
dists. The above letter, therefore, which has been 
seized on with an avidity, by certain writers and pub- 
lishers of periodicals, which shows the greediness 
with which they devour every thing which can, 
even in any degree, produce an unsavory taste of 
Methodism, could have been dictated only under the 
influence of misinformation respecting the man to 
whom it was addressed ; and while it evinces a fatherly 
solicitude for the welfare of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, it shows a fraternal feeling for Mr. Asbury 
himself, even while it smites him with the severity 
of its rebuke. 

I trust, therefore, that every unprejudiced mind 
will be convinced that the thing to which Mr. Wesley 
objected was the simple title of bishop, and not to the 
form of church government which had been established 
— and that for the most forcible of all reasons — because 
it was of his own creation, the child of his choice. 

There are other objections which must be obviated. 
They must be deferred, however, to another number. 



AN* ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



153 



NUMBER XII. 

Answer to the objection that Dr. Coke solicited the appointment 
of bishop — Mr. Moore's remarks— Dr. Coke's letter to Mr. Wes- 
ley — Mistake corrected respecting Mr. Asbury's words— His con- 
duct vindicated— Dr. Coke ambitious only to do good — Proved 
from his actions — A man may seek the highest office with a view 
to extend his usefulness — He did not, as accused, doubt the va- 
lidity of his ordination — Proved from his own words — His letter to 
Bishop "White reconcilable with perfect sincerity— His plan of 
union rejected. 

Another objection which has been preferred against 
the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is, that Dr. Coke solicited the office of bishop from 
the hands of Mr. Wesley. To sustain this objection 
a letter from him to Mr, Wesley has been produced 
and published ; and that our readers may have the 
whole subject before them, they shall, if they please, 
read the letter for themselves ; for I am desirous, 
since I have been led, quite contrary to my expecta- 
tions when I commenced these numbers, to examine 
this subject, to sift it, if possible, to the bottom ; being 
folly conscious that there is nothing relating to these 
transactions but what will bear the closest scrutiny. 
Why should we shrink from considering any objection 
which either candor, ignorance, malice, or ingenuity 
can invent ? If we cannot stand a close and impar- 
tial scrutiny in the light of Scripture and rational in- 
vestigation, let us fall, as in that case we ought. 

Mr. Moore, the last surviving trustee and the able 
biographer of Mr. Wesley, on introducing this letter 
to- his readers, remarks, " that when Dr. Coke's in- 
censed calumniator," namely, Dr. Whitehead, whose 
disappointed ambition led him to say many hard things 
of Wesley, Coke, and others concerned in those trans- 



154 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



actions, " had got possession of Mr. Wesley's manu- 
scripts, he found among them a letter written by the 
doctor to Mr. Wesley, which he thought would an- 
swer his wretched purpose. This document Dr. 
Whitehead has given entire," for the unmanly purpose, 
as it appears, of blackening the character of Dr. Coke, 
and gratifying the splenetic disposition of those of that 
day who were opposed to the proceedings in relation 
to American Methodism. And I may observe here 
that this letter has often been referred to since by such 
writers as seem to think it a virtue to load the name 
of Dr. Coke and Methodism with obloquy and reproach. 
Yet, as Mr. Moore justly observes, "when the cir- 
cumstances of that day are considered, it will appear 
that Dr. Coke had much ground for the apprehensions 
which he expressed, and for the request which he pre- 
ferred in that letter." " It being determined," Mr. 
Moore adds, " at Leeds that the ministers who were 
to assist Mr. Wesley, should meet him in Bristol, 
August the 9th, Dr. Coke sent him the following 
letter :"— 

" Honored and Dear Sir, — The more maturely 
I consider the subject, the more expedient it appears 
to me that the power of ordaining others should be 
received by me from you, by the imposition of your 
hands ; and that you should lay hands on brother 
Whatcoat and brother Vasey, for the following rea- 
sons : — 1. It seems to me the most Scriptural way, 
and most agreeable to the practice of the primitive 
churches. 2. I may want all the influence in Ame- 
rica which you can throw into my scale. Mr. Brack- 
enbury informed me, at Leeds, that he saw a letter in 
London from Mr. Asbury, in which he observed, < that 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 155 

he would not receive any person deputed by you to 
take any part of the superintendency of the work in- 
vested in him or words which evidently implied so 
much. I do not find any the least degree of prejudice 
in my mind against Mr. Asbury ; on the contrary, a 
very great love and esteem ; and I am determined not 
to stir a finger without his consent, unless mere sheer 
necessity obliges me, but rather to lie at his feet in 
all things. But as the journey is long, and you can- 
not spare me often, and it is well to provide against 
all events, and an authority, formally received from 
you, will (I am conscious of it) be fully admitted by 
the people ; and my exercising the office of ordination 
without that formal authority may be disputed, if there 
be any opposition on any other account ; I could there- 
fore earnestly wish you would exercise that power, in 
this instance, which I have not the shadow of a doubt 
but God hath invested you with for the good of our 
connection. I think you have tried me too often to 
doubt whether I will, in any degree, use the power 
you are pleased to invest me with, farther than I be- 
lieve absolutely necessary for the prosperity of the 
work. 3. In respect of my brethren, (brothers What- 
coat and Vasey^) it is very uncertain indeed whether 
any of the clergy mentioned by brother Rankin will 
stir a step with me in the work, except Mr. Jarratt ; 
and it is by no means certain that even he will choose 
to join me in ordaining : and propriety and universal 
practice make it expedient that I should have two 
presbyters with me in this work. In short, it appears 
to me that every thing should be prepared, and every 
thing proper be done, that can possibly be done, this 
side the water. You can do all this in Mr. C — n's 
house, in your chamber ; and afterward (according to 



156 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



Mr. Fletcher's advice)* give us letters testimonial of 
the different offices with which you have been pleased 
to invest us. For the purpose of laying hands on 
brothers Whatcoat and Vasey I can bring Mr. Creigh- 
ton down with me, by which you will have two pres- 
byters with you. In respect to brother Rankin's 
argument, that you will escape a great deal of odium 
by omitting this, it is nothing. Either it will be 
known, or not known ; if not known, then no odium 
will arise ; but if known, you will be obliged to ac- 
knowledge that I acted under your direction, or suffer 
me to sink under the weight of my enemies, with, 
perhaps, your brother at the head of them. I shall 
entreat you to ponder these things. 

" Your most dutiful, T. Coke."| 

It will be perceived that Dr. Coke says in this 
letter that " Mr. Brackenbury informed him that he 
had seen a letter in London from Mr. Asbury, in which 
he observed ' that he would not receive any person 
deputed by you to take any part of the superintend- 
ency of the work invested in him ;' or words which 
evidently implied so much." 

Now, without impeaching either the honesty of 
Mr. Brackenbury, or the veracity of Dr. Coke, it is 
seriously doubted whether Mr. Asbury ever gave ut- 
terance to such a sentiment. As it is manifest that 
many flying reports were circulated to the disadvan- 

* Mr. Fletcher attended the conference in 1784, and was 
one of the meeting which Mr. Wesley called in order to consi- 
der the subject. 

"j" Dr. Whitehead observes, " This letter is taken from an 
attested copy of the doctor's letter, in Mr. Charles Wesley's 
handwriting." 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 157 



tage of Mr. Asbury about that time, it was very easy 
for Mr. B. to mistake, as he evidently quoted from 
memory, one of those unfounded reports for Mr. As- 
bury's own words, or even to misconstrue the words 
themselves ; and this seems the more probable from 
the concluding sentence, which seems to be Dr. Coke's, 
" which evidently implied so much." This seems, 
moreover, probable from the fact that not only Mr. 
Asbury did not make any the least objection to re- 
ceiving Dr. Coke, but evidently received him with the 
greatest cordiality and joy ; so much so, that the whole 
congregation — for their first meeting was in the face 
of a large congregation — were melted to tears on be- 
holding the affectionate manner in which they em- 
braced each other. And in all their intercourse not 
a word transpired expressive of an unwillingness on 
the part of Mr. Asbury, either to acknowledge the 
authority of Mr. Wesley, or to receive Dr. Coke as 
a superintendent. The manifest reluctance also, aris- 
ing from the humbling views he had of himself, which 
he at first evinced to take upon him the office of a 
superintendent, for which he had been designated by 
Mr, Wesley, proves that he was so far from being 
averse to the coadjutorship of Dr. Coke in the super- 
intendency, that he rejoiced to " receive him as a 
brother beloved." But let us hear Mr. Asbury's own 
account of this matter. He says, in his Journal, vol. 
i, p. 376 ;— 

" Sunday 15. I came to Barratt's chapel : here, to 
my great joy, I met those dear men of God, Doctor 
Coke and Richard Whatcoat ; we were greatly com- 
forted together." 

Does this look like reluctance at receiving Dr> 



158 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

Coke, under the authority of Mr. Wesley ? And under 
date of the 26th of the same month he says : — 

" I observed this day as a day of fasting and prayer, 
that I might know the will of God in the matter that 
is shortly to come before our conference," — that is, 
the subject of his election and consecration to the 
office of a superintendent, and the organization of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, agreeably to Mr. Wes- 
ley's instructions : " the preachers and people seem to 
be much pleased with the projected plan : I myself 
am led to think it is of the Lord. I am not tickled 
with the honor to be gained ; I see danger in the way. 
My soul waits upon God. 0 that he may lead us in 
the way we should go !" 

Not a word in all this in opposition to the autho- 
rity of Mr. Wesley or Dr. Coke. Like a man who 
felt his dependence on God, and sought his will and 
direction, he prepares himself by prayer and fasting 
for the approaching conference, when the plan of Mr, 
Wesley and his associates was to be submitted to the 
decision of the preachers. As a proof of the respect- 
ful attention with which Mr. Asbury always received 
and treated Dr. Coke, as his senior in office, I will 
remark that when Mr. Asbury, at the request of the 
New-York conference, preached the doctor's funeral 
sermon, in the city of Albany, in 1812, I distinctly 
remember to have heard him say, that never a faithful 
servant waited on his master with more delight than 
he had done on Dr. Coke during their travels together 
in America ; and in that same sermon he bore the 
most full and unequivocal testimony to the integrity, 
fidelity, usefulness, and exalted character of his de- 
ceased colleague. So much for that item in the above 
letter. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 159 

But those who wish to lower the character of Dr. 
Coke, and to throw an air of ridicule over the whole 
affair, have insinuated that he was actuated by an un- 
holy ambition, merely because he solicited consecra- 
tion by the hands of Mr. Wesley. That Dr. Coke 
was ambitious, I allow ; but he was ambitious only 
to do good of every possible sort ; to excel in the 
ranks of usefulness to his fellow men ; and to receive 
that " recompense of reward" which God has promised* 
to his most faithful servants. But that he was ambi- 
tious of distinction among men ; to acquire human 
fame ; to deck himself with worldly honors or gran- 
deur ; is more than any one has a right to infer from 
any of his actions. But was there, in reality, any 
thing reprehensible in asking this at the hands of Mr, 
Wesley ? Let it be recollected,— 

1. That it had been determined in a council held 
for that purpose, among whom was the sainted 
Fletcher, that Dr. Coke should visit America for the 
purpose of complying with the wishes of the Ameri- 
can Methodists to be furnished with the ministry and 
ordinances of Jesus Christ, by organizing them into 
a church. The question very naturally arose, In what 
way can this be done with the least possible delay, so 
as to satisfy the scruples and meet the views of all 
concerned ? Dr. Coke was fully aware that Mr. 
Wesley had no scruples in his ow r n mind respecting 
the lawfulness, on Scriptural ground, of his exercising 
the power of ordination ; that he only hesitated from 
motives of prudence, as a minister of the Church of 
England ; and that now, such was the altered state of 
things in this country as to remove all grounds of 
hesitancy, that both the lawfulness and expediency 
of the measure would be vindicated. 



160 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

2. Dr. Coke was sensible, as he was himself com- 
paratively young in the Methodist connection, that he 
should need all the influence he might acquire in order 
to carry the projected plan into execution ; and he 
fully believed at the same time — knowing the great 
influence of Mr. Wesley's name among the Method- 
ists — that his receiving ordination, as a superintendent, 
from the hands of such a man, would give great ad- 
ditional weight to his character, and very much advance 

the object of his mission, These considerations led 
him to write the above leUer to Mr. Wesley, solicit- 
ing him to invest him with " fuller powers," not by 
making him a bishop in the Church of England, but 
by consecrating him a superintendent of the Method- 
ists in America. 

3. In the next place, let it be recollected that the 
object to be accomplished by all this was the salvation 
of souls, and not any temporal, civil, or ecclesiastical 
aggrandizement. That the motives which actuated 
Dr. Coke were perfectly pure, whatever errors of 
judgment he may have committed, his whole life de- 
clares. Never did man, in modern times, submit to 
greater privations, labors, and even reproach from both 
friends and enemies, in order to serve the cause of 
Christ, and to advance the present and future happi- 
ness of the human family, than Dr. Coke. In addi- 
tion to the immense labors he performed, as an 
assistant to Mr. Wesley, and as the head and soul of 
Methodist missions, as well as in his office of a super- 
intendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ame- 
rica, he made great pecuniary sacrifices, expending 
large sums from his own private income to sustain 
the cause in which he was engaged, and he finally fell 
a martyr to his work, in the midst of his usefulness* 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 161 

while on his way to carry the glad tidings of salvation 
to the nations beyond the Indian ocean. I mention 
these things to show that he could not have been ac- 
tuated by any impure or sordid motives. Let those 
who endeavor to load his memory with reproach, by 
fixing upon his character the foul stigma of a selfish 
ambition, exhibit as many marks of disinterestedness ; 
make as many personal and pecuniary sacrifices to 
serve the cause of humanity ; and perform the same 
amount of labor as ministers of Jesus Christ ; and 
they will clear themselves of all suspicions of impro- 
per motives in their conduct, however much they may 
be mistaken in their estimate of the subject of our re- 
marks. Had those idle clergymen, mentioned by 
Bishop White and others, from whom Dr. Coke dis- 
sented when he organized Methodism into an evan- 
gelical church, imitated the fervor of his zeal, and trod 
in his footsteps while he was itinerating through both 
hemispheres to convert sinners from the error of their 
ways, there had been less vituperation against him, 
and much more of the flame of piety enkindled in the 
hearts, and shining in the lives of our fellow men. 

4, This being the object to be accomplished, it was 
entirely proper that he should bring to his aid every 
lawful means to enable him to effect it. To satisfy 
the doubts, and to remove the objections of all con- 
cerned, he earnestly sought, and, I think, very justifia- 
bly, to invest himself with all the authority with which 
Mr. Wesley could consistently clothe him. 

But, say the objectors, he sought this. Who .say 
this ? The Protestant Episcopalians ? They ought 
to be the last to make this objection. Did not Dr. 
Seabury seek, by every possible means, to conciliate 
the British episcopacy in his behalf? And, failing 



162 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

here, did he not apply to and obtain from the Scotch 
bishops the episcopacy? Is he to be censured for 
manifesting this solicitude ? And did not Bishop 
White, sanctioned by the American episcopal clergy, 
earnestly solicit the favor of the archbishop of Canter- 
bury to lay hands on him ? If any doubt this, let him 
read Bishop White's own account of his interviews 
with that prelate, in reference to this subject. And 
is that which was considered a virtue in these gentle- 
men to be converted into a vice in Dr. Coke ? Why 
should he be made the " scape goat" to carry off the 
sins of all those clergymen who may have manifested 
an honest " desire for the office of a bishop ?" 

And does not the apostle declare, in the words just 
now alluded to, " He that desires the office of a bishop 
desires a good work VI More especially when he 
desires it, surrounded, as it was in the apostles' days, 
and as it was in the days of Coke and Asbury, with 
" labors more abundant," with numerous privations, 
and with none of the gaudy trappings of worldly glory ? 
Is it any mark of pride, or of unholy ambition, for a 
man to desire to devote himself, in the most effectual 
way possible, for the salvation of souls ? May not a 
man be even " moved by the Holy Ghost" to take upon 
him such an office ? Though I allow that a novice 
may be elated with a little " brief authority," and 
through that vanity of mind which is the companion 
only of great ignorance, may swell and " strut," while 
he attempts to " magnify his office," and thus render 
himself ridiculous in the estimation of all sensible and 
pious men, yet, is it not possible for a man to desire 
and seek, by lawful means, to obtain even the highest 
office in the church, from the purest motives — simply 
because he may be more extensively useful ? 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 163 

Had Dr. Coke descended to trick and finesse — had 
he courted the ignorant, fawned to the great, withheld 
just praise and merited respect from those more worthy 
than himself, in order to accomplish his object, he 
might w r ell be blamed for his temerity, and execrated 
for his vanity and double dealing. None of these 
contemptible arts, however, ever disgraced his pro- 
ceedings. His soul, expanded with love to God and 
man, and athirst for the salvation of a lost world, 
submitted indeed to be vile in the estimation of the 
wise men of the world, and those who were governed 
merely by the maxims of human prudence, that his 
brow might be encircled with that glory alone which 
is the reward of winning souls to Christ. And while 
the names of his revilers " shall rot" amidst the sun- 
shine of human praise and worldly grandeur, his shaB 
live among those wise ones " who have turned many 
to righteousness.'" His artlessness, impelled on as it 
was by a strong and irrepressible desire to do good, 
may have betrayed him into errors ; but these errors 
are more than atoned for by that untiring zeal and 
perpetual activity in the cause of Christ which charac- 
terized his career of usefulness, and which places his 
name upon the records of the church as one of her 
brightest ornaments and most devoted ministers. 

From a careful, and, I trust, not a partial or hasty 
inspection of his whole life, as it stands recorded in 
his faithful biography, I consider this testimony due 
to his exalted character, And surely we American 
Methodists must say, even under the promptings of 
justice, that if he were not an apostle to others, he 
doubtless was to us, for the signs of an apostle which 
he first hung out are still visible among us in that ex- 
cellent organization of ministerial order which he was 



164 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

instrumental in establishing. And though his bones 
are mingled with the coral sands of the Indian Ocean — 
being suddenly arrested by death while on a voyage 
of missionary labor to the inhabitants of the east— it 
must not be forgotten that he had traversed the broad 
Atlantic no less than eighteen times, on errands of love 
and mercy to his American brethren. The name of 
COKE, therefore, will ever be associated with the 
worthies who founded the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and hallowed in the recollection of those of her sons 
who take pleasure in " marking well her bulwarks, 
and telling the towers thereof." Nor is it more than 
a sacred duty we owe to departed worth, to rescue 
his name from undeserved reproach, and place it on 
one of the pillars in that temple of our glory which 
his own hands contributed to erect. I trust that the 
facts which have led to these reflections will be ac- 
cepted as an apology for this token of respect to one 
who lives in the grateful remembrance of American 
Methodists, among whom ingratitude for past favors 
should be held as a reproach. 

But there is another sentiment in this letter of no 
small importance. In the year 1791 Dr. Coke ad- 
dressed a letter to Bishop White, proposing a union 
between the Methodist and Protestant Episcopal 
Churches, in which is the following sentence : — Mr. 
Wesley " did indeed solemnly invest me, as far as he 
had a right so to do, with episcopal authority." From 
this, as well as from the general tenor of the letter, 
some have taken occasion to say that Dr. Coke doubted 
the validity of his own ordination. But in the letter 
under consideration, he says, " I could therefore ear- 
nestly wish you would exercise that power, in this 
instance, which, I have not a shadow of doubt, God 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 165 

hath invested you with for the good of our connec- 
tion." This must for ever silence those who have the 
smallest confidence in the veracity and consistency of 
Dr. Coke ; nor is there, when properly understood, 
any more than an apparent discrepancy between this 
solemn asseveration and that which he expressed in 
his letter to Bishop White. In the latter he says 
that Mr. Wesley invested him with episcopal powers 
as far as he had a right so to do. Did Dr. Coke, 
therefore, say that Mr. Wesley had no right to confer 
episcopal powers upon him ? No such thing. As a 
presbyter of the Church of England simply, he had 
no right to confer episcopal powers upon another pres- 
byter to exercise those powers within the English 
Church, or where that church had jurisdiction ; but 
he had a right, as a presbyter of the Christian church, 
and as the spiritual father of the whole Methodist 
family, to ordain Dr. Coke, or any other competent 
person, to exercise episcopal powers over that spiritual 
family where the English Church had no jurisdiction ; 
he had no right to constitute a man a bishop of the 
English Church ; but he had a right to constitute a 
man a bishop over the Methodist Church. 

Now let us try Dr. Coke's two declarations by these 
principles, so obviously true. In the first he says, I 
have not a shadow of doubt but that God has invested 
Mr. Wesley with the right to ordain me a bishop over 
the Methodist Church ; but at the same time I do 
doubt of his right to invest me with episcopal autho- 
rity in the English Church ; and hence he says to 
Bishop White, in perfect consistency with this belief, 
Mr. Wesley " did indeed solemnly invest me, as far 
as he had a right so to do, with episcopal authority," 
and no farther : he did not pretend to give me epis- 



166 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

copal authority as a bishop in the English Church- — 
nor yet among the Methodists in England — and hence 
Dr. Coke never presumed to exercise his episcopal 
powers in England, except in the ordination of foreign 
missionaries. This view, I think, clears up the diffi- 
culty, and entirely removes the otherwise apparent 
discrepancy in Dr. Coke's language, vindicates his 
sincerity and consistency, and robs his enemies of 
their boast. Had Mr. Wesley pretended to ordain 
Dr. Coke with a view to his exercising episcopal 
powers in the established Church of England, he 
would justly have exposed himself to the contempt of 
all men. 

As I have introduced this letter of Dr. Coke to 
Bishop White, I may as well finish what I have to 
say respecting it in this place, once for all. It is not 
necessary to recite the entire contents of this letter. 
It is dated April 24, 1791, and is addressed as a 
confidential"* letter to Bishop White, and proposes a 

* This letter and its answer may be found in the Memoirs 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, by Bishop White, p. 345, 
and the bishop's remarks in p. 168. He gives the following 
account of the circumstances, as an apology for its publication. 
He says that he " kept silence on the subject of it, except in 
the permitted communication to the bishops, until the summer 
of 1804; when he received in one day two letters from the 
eastern shore of Maryland. One of them was from the Rev. 
Simon Wilmer, of the Episcopal Church, and the other from 
the Rev. Mr. McKlaskey, of the Methodist communion. In a 
conversation between these two gentlemen, the former had 
affirmed the fact of Dr. Coke's application, which was disbe- 
lieved by the other. This produced their respective letters, 
which were answered by a statement of the fact. The matter 
being afterward variously reported, a copy of the letter was, 
after some lapse of time, delivered to the Rev. Dr. Kemp, of 
Maryland, and at last became published in a controversy raised 
in the diocese." 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 167 



union between the two churches. This letter is no 
otherwise important than as it has afforded a handle 
to the Protestant Episcopalians to insinuate that Dr. 
Coke doubted the validity of his own ordination, and, 
as a consequence, the ordination of such as had been 
set apart by him. As to the first part of the allega- 
tion, it has been fully answered already. And as a 
farther confirmation of these views, and as proof that 
Bishop White should not have understood him in this 
way, Dr. Coke says in this letter, " Our ordained 

Though there is nothing in this letter derogatory to Dr. Coke, 
only so far as he may have erred in his judgment by acting in 
so important an affair without consulting his colleagues or the 
conference, and even contrary to what he apprehended to be 
the wishes of Bishop Asbury- — -for he tells Bishop White, that 
u Mr. Asbury, whose influence is very capital, will not easily 
comply ; nay, I know he will be exceedingly averse to it" — 
yet I do not think Bishop White's apology sufficient to justify 
the publication of the letter ; for Dr. Coke makes this request, 
" One thing only I will claim of your candor — that if you have 
no thoughts of improving this proposal, you will burn this letter 
and take no more notice of it." I do not mean, however, by 
this remark, to censure the conduct of the respectable prelate 
to whom Dr. Coke unbosomed himself with so much freedom, 
but principally to show that Dr. Coke himself, as is manifest 
from internal evidence on the face of the letter, considered the 
whole business in a very crude state, designing his letter merely 
as feeler of the pulse, or as introductory to a more matured 
plan, should it be favorably viewed on both sides ; and there- 
fore he requested, in case it was not so viewed by Bishop White 
and his friends, the matter might drop, and his letter be burned. 
Those who have known these facts from the beginning, have 
always considered it one of those precipitate acts of Dr. Coke, 
which his best friends and warmest admirers cannot but acknow- 
ledge sometimes unhappily marked his conduct. He himself 
indeed lived to see and acknowledge his error. But that he 
either at that time, or any time thereafter, doubted the validity 
of his ordination, is denied on the best authority. 



168 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



ministers will not, ought not to give up their right of 
administering the sacraments." 

Here is as unequivocal an avowal of the validity 
of their ordination, by which they had acquired the 
right of administering the sacraments, as words could 
express, and this, too, in the very letter from which the 
contrary sentiment has been inferred. And surely if 
their ordination was considered valid, his from whom 
they received it, should be so considered. It is true, 
Dr. Coke says that he thinks " the generality of them, 
perhaps none of them, would refuse to submit to a re- 
ordination." This he thinks they would do for the 
sake of accomplishing the union which he proposed, 
and not from a conviction of the invalidity of his or 
their ordination. I give this, as I am authorized to 
do, as Dr. Coke's own views, without pledging my- 
self to their correctness. I believe myself, that Dr. 
Coke's great ardor of mind to do good, and the thought 
that such a union would accomplish much, betrayed 
him into an error in this whole business ; and that he 
misinterpreted the sentiment which generally pervaded 
the Methodist ministry in respect to a willingness to 
" submit to a reordination," in order to effect a union 
with the Protestant Episcopal Church. A union based 
upon equal rights and privileges, cemented by Chris- 
tian love, producing a reciprocity of feeling and senti- 
ment, and a combination of effort, might be productive 
of the happiest results ; and to bring about such a 
union none would be more ready to lend his influ- 
ence than the writer of these numbers ; but a union 
that would require even an implied renunciation of 
rights which I consider as sacred among us as among 
others, having as strong a sanction from Scripture and 
primitive usage as those possessed by any branch of 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



169 



the Christian church, involves a sacrifice too costly to 
be demanded at our hands. 

It should be remarked that this letter was altogether 
unofficial, known only to Dr. Coke himself, not even 
to Bishop Asbury, nor yet to Mr. Wesley, and Dr. 
Coke himself has since affirmed that although he 
thought at the time a union with the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church was desirable, and would have been 
mutually beneficial, yet that he had since become con- 
vinced both of the impracticability of the measure and 
of its inexpediency. Neither the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, nor Mr. Wesley, is to be held responsible 
for any suggestions contained in this letter ; and though 
its contents speak favorably for the heart of Dr. Coke, 
yet I am convinced that he greatly erred in his judg- 
ment in making the proposition under the circum- 
stances he did. 

According to Bishop White's account of this matter, 
the thing was treated, when laid before the convention of 
that church in 1792, as it was in a proposition couched 
in general terms by Bishop Madison, as an impracti- 
cable measure ; for he says, " On reading it in the 
house of clerical and lay deputies, they were asto- 
nished, considering it altogether preposterous ;" and 
though some few gentlemen spoke in favor of holding 
out a desire for a union, the bishop adds, " It was not 
to be endured, and the bishops silently withdrew it, 
agreeably to leave given," [See Memoirs, p. 168.] 
Thus ended this abortive attempt at a union between 
these two churches, from which it appears that what- 
ever attempts w r ere made by Mr. Wesley to prevent 
a separation, or by Dr. Coke or others toward a union 
of this character afterward, there was no way to effect 
it, unless the Methodists had dissolved themselves as 

8 



170 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

a distinct body, and thus have annihilated all those 
peculiarities by which they had ever been distinguish- 
ed ; a sacrifice too great for the advantages to be 
derived from it. 

The responsibility, however, of the failure, so far 
as any steps were taken, either to prevent the neces- 
sity of a separation or to effect a union, is shifted from 
the shoulders of the Methodists to those who rendered 
all such attempts nugatory — and there let it rest until 
a brighter day shall dawn upon the church and upon 
the world. 



NUMBER XIII. 

That Mr. Wesley intended to establish an episcopal church, atid 
that Dr. Coke believed in the validity of his ordination, has been 
established — This farther proved — Dr. Chapman's objection an- 
swered — Why Mr. Wesley objected to the use of the title bishop- 
Charles Wesley's letter to Dr. Chandler examined — Makes no- 
thing against our position — The conduct of John and Charles 
Wesley contrasted — John's preferred — A diiFerence of opinion does 
not prove John mistaken-^Our custom compatible with the prin- 
ciples laid down — Objection answered — The doctrine guarded 
against abuse — Compacts among ministers binding. 

I trust the facts and arguments adduced in the 
two preceding numbers have established the two 
following propositions 

I. That Mr. Wesley did intend to, and did de facto, 
establish a Methodist Episcopal Church in America. 
2. That Dr. Coke never had any doubts either of the 
validity of his own ordination, or that of those who 
were consecrated by him. 

And yet Dr. Chapman, who quotes some portions 
of the documents I have reviewed, and in a manner 
calculated to make an impression that he possessed a 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



171 



rare treasure by having in his " possession those 
documents," comes to this grave conclusion : — 

Mr. Wesley clearly shows, by his expostulation 
with Bishop Asbury — in the letter which I have pub- 
lished in the 10th number — " that he would not have 
the presbyter Coke, much less the lay preacher, 
Asbury, confer holy orders after the usurped example 
of the Presbyterians, and in virtue of his alleged 
concurrence or delegated episcopal authority." This 
unfortunate conclusion is founded upon that sentence 
in Mr. Wesley's letter to Bishop Asbury, which says, 
" Let the Presbyterians do what they please, but let 
the Methodists know their calling better." Now what 
did the writer, Mr. Wesley, mean by this ? Did he, 
could he mean that he did not intend that Coke and 
Asbury should possess and exercise episcopal powers ? 
Can any man in his senses persuade himself to believe, 
with all the facts in the case before him — such as Mr. 
Wesley's own solemn acts in ordaining Whatcoat, 
Yasey, and Coke, as well as his designation of Asbury 
to be a joint superintendent with Dr. Coke, his letters 
testimonial, and his preparing consecration services for 
deacons, elders, and superintendents — I say, can any 
man honestly declare that Mr. Wesley never meant to 
establish a Methodist Episcopal Church ? He w T ho 
can believe this must also believe that John Wesley 
was one of the most consummate hypocrites tha* ever 
disgraced the annals of history ! Dotage wctfld be a 
feeble apology for him who could practise such 
duplicity. And if he who has studied the life of 
Wesley can say he believes that he was either a 
knave or a/ooZ, he may despair of e?er finding either 
an honest or a wise man among all the sons of Adam ! 

Could not Dr. Chapman understand what Mr. 



172 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

Wesley meant by the phrase, " Let the Presbyterians 
do what they please, but let the Methodists know their 
calling better," without resorting to the most un- 
charitable of all constructions, namely, that all Mr. 
Wesley had so solemnly done was only a religious 
farce ! that Coke was yet only a simple presbyter in 
the Church of England, and that Asbury was naught 
but a " lay preacher ?" Is it possible that he could 
so far impose upon himself as to believe that the great, 
the good, the holy, and indefatigable Wesley practised 
such deception upon himself and upon mankind ? or 
that he had so lost his senses that he did not know 
what he had done ? 

Take the subject in the light I have placed it, and 
all is easy and consistent. Mr. Wesley, for the rea- 
sons already assigned, objected to Mr. Asbury's allow- 
ing himself to be called a bishop. Now, says he, 
" Let the Presbyterians do as they please," in this 
matter: let them allow their presbyters to be called 
bishops — which every body knows is the case among 
them, namely, that their presbyters are called bishops 
in their standards — if they please ; but " let the 
Methodists know their calling better :" let them retain 
the more expressive title I have given them, that of 
superintendents, because it expresses, to a mere 
English ear, more definitely than does the exotic, 
ambiguous term bishop, the peculiar work to which 
they have, by the providence of God, been called ; 
that is, to take a general oversight of the Methodist 
Church in America. This was Mr. Wesley's plain 
meaning — nothing more nor less. He doubtless had 
a predilection for this title, as it is that by which he 
had distinguished +hose to whom he had given charge 
of circuits ; and he therefore wished to retain his own 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 173 



technicalities ; and more especially as the title super- 
intendent fully expressed the nature and duties of the 
office held by Coke and Asbury. 

But Dr. Chapman, in imitation of many others who 
had written upon this subject before him in a similar 
strain of invective, cites the letter of the Rev. Charles 
Wesley to Dr. Chandler, in which he strongly and 
pointedly disapproves of his brother's proceedings. 
But what does this prove ? Why, it proves just this, 
and nothing more, that Charles dissented from his 
brother John in his judgment in respect to the matter 
in dispute. He does not pretend to impeach his 
motives : on the contrary he says expressly, " He 
certainly persuaded himself that he was right." Nor 
does he, like Dr. Chapman, impute to his brother, 
whom he always venerated as his superior in all things, 
the nonsensical revery of having set apart a mere 
nominal superintendent, of creating a mere empty 
bubble, without body or parts, without powers and 
offices ; for he says, in a strain of regret, it is true — 
for he lamented the fact- — " my old intimate friend 
and companion has assumed the episcopal character, 
ordained elders, consecrated a bishop, and sent him to 
ordain lay preachers in America." Here the fact is 
asserted unequivocally by Charles Wesley, that his 
brother John had truly, though he doubted whether 
he had done it canonically, ordained elders, and con- 
secrated a bishop, and had sent him to ordain others 
— thus unconsciously justifying Dr. Coke and Mr. 
Asbury in calling themselves bishops, and refuting 
Dr. Chapman's assertion that he never intended to 
authorize Coke and Asbury to confer holy orders upon 
others. And yet Dr. Chapman quotes this identical 
letter to prove that John Wesley never designed to 



174 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

establish an episcopal church ! that he never intended 
to invest Coke and Asbury with episcopal powers ! 
that he never meant to clothe them with power to 
" admit others to holy orders !" Surely, if Wesley 
could be convicted of duplicity equal to this, his name 
ought to be execrated by every honest mind. 

In one particular Dr. Chapman is doubtless correct : 
when he says that Wesley " would not have Coke 
and Asbury confer holy orders after the usurped ex- 
ample of the Presbyterians."* Mr. Wesley under- 
stood presbyter and bishop, in the primitive accepta- 
tion of those terms, as expressive of the same order ; 
and though he believed that they had the original right 
to confer orders, yet being attached to the general 
character of modern episcopacy, and not believing that 
the power of ordination was necessarily confined to 
them, he preferred this mode for the American Metho- 
dist Church, and hence provided for it by setting apart 
Dr. Coke to the office of a superintendent. In this 
respect, as well as in recognizing an inferior order of 
ministers called deacons — concerning which I shall 
show my opinion hereafter — he did indeed depart from 
the ministerial parity of presbyterianism, yielding, in 
this point, to the principles of expediency as they had 
been exemplified in the early periods of the ehurch ? 
in preference to a rigid adherence to what he con- 
sidered was merely absolutely essential. 

* I do not mean by this remark that our Presbyterian brethren 
have usurped the power of ordination, although I am fully con- 
vinced that their mode of church government does not accord 
so nearly with primitive usage, as if it were episcopal. Let 
the reader keep in mind the distinction between the power of 
ordination and the power of jurisdiction, and he can easily dis- 
tinguish between a usurped and legitimate power of ordination 
in a presbytery, and between this and a general episcopal 
superintendency. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



175 



But " Charles Wesley dissented from the proceed- 
ings of his brother John." I allow he did. But, as 
before said, this proves nothing more than the simple 
fact — the difference. I dissent from Dr. Chapman, 
and it proves the naked fact, that there is a difference 
between us. The question is, Which is right ? The 
Rev. Charles Wesley was unquestionably a great 
and good man. To him will the Methodist Church 
ever acknowledge itself indebted for his evangelical 
labors — more especially for those devotional hymns, 
so spiritual and evangelical, so strictly orthodox and 
poetical, and which will continue as the standard of its 
psalmody so long as there are hearts to relish and 
minds to appreciate either poetical excellence or deep 
religious experience. I would not, even if I could, 
detract aught from his well-earned fame as a Christian 
poet and a sound divine, for his praise is sung in all 
our churches. Nor were his labors in the pulpit 
either small or useless. His " preaching was with 
demonstration and power," and many, who were born 
unto God under his searching ministry, " will rise up 
in that dav, and call him blessed." 

Yet he must yield the palm, in every respect, to his 
brother John. To his pruning do his hymns owe 
much for their peculiar excellence. Though both 
were strict churchmen, and could haidly persuade 
themselves that any good thing could be found beyond 
the pale of the establishment, yet the shackles sat 
much tighter upon Charles than upon John. The 
latter, elevating himself far above things of merely 
an indifferent character, despising alike the censures 
of the bigot and the praises of the wise men of the 
world, broke loose from the cords of prejudice, and 
easting a prophetic look down the vista of time, he 



176 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

saw generations yet unborn in America, for whom it 
was needful to have provided the bread and water of 
life. He heard the cry of those in this country who 
w r ere destitute of the ordinances of religion. He felt 
the responsibility of his position. " Shall I" — doubt- 
less he said to himself in his secret musings upon this 
subject — " shall I, from respect to the opinions of 
those I love, or from fear of the hatred of those who 
are watching me for evil—shall I sacrifice the substance 
for the shadow, and incur the fearful responsibility of 
denying those poor sheep in the wilderness the help 
they so greatly need ?" Ever intent upon doing good 
of every possible sort, as far as in him lay, he could 
not withhold thai; aid in this emergency which he 
plainly saw he could both Scripturally and rationally 
afford them, for fear of trespassing upon certain eccle- 
siastical usages, sanctioned indeed by custom, but not 
commanded in the word of God. Being convinced 
what was his duty in the premises, he hesitated not 
to obey the admonitions of Providence, even at the 
expense of forfeiting the good will of his brother and 
others. He thus consented to become vile in their 
eyes, that he might be instrumental of saving the souls 
of those who were ready to perish. 

Now the question is, who manifested most of the 
apostolic spirit ; John Wesley, who thus laid a broad 
foundation for one of the most numerous and prosper- 
ous branches of the church of Christ on this side the 
Atlantic ; or Charles Wesley, who, " straitened in his 
own bowels" by the cords of canonical orders, and 
rather than sacrifice aught of his predilection for 
church ceremonies, confessedly of an indifferent cha- 
racter, would have allowed those sheep to have been 
scattered abroad, and perhaps devoured by " wolves 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 177 

in sheep's clothing ?" I leave the reader to answer 
this question. Let him review the facts. Let him 
compare the circumstances already adduced. Let him 
also look at the actual results of what was sanctioned 
and done by John, and compare them with the pro- 
bable results which would have followed the course 
pursued by Charles Wesley, and then decide which 
was in the right. 

Another objection which may be urged against the 
arguments in favor of our ordination takes its rise 
from our own custom. It is asked, Why, if ordi- 
nation by presbyters is Scriptural, have we com- 
mitted that power to superior officers in the church, 
called superintendents or bishops ? The answer is 
found in the principle all along recognized, that no 
specific form of church government is prescribed in 
Scripture ; and that therefore it is left to the discre- 
tion of the church to regulate these matters as the 
exigencies of time, place, and circumstances shall dic- 
tate to be most expedient, and likely to accomplish 
the greatest amount of good ; always avoiding any 
and every thing which God has prohibited. On this 
most obvious principle, that part of our economy which 
has committed the power of ordination to a grade of 
ministers superior in office to elders, is considered a 
domestic regulation among ourselves, supposed to be 
best adapted to our peculiar organization, and calcu- 
lated to give a more energetic and diffusive spread to 
the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Nor is this peculiar to our church. Until some 
one of the denominations into which the three forms 
of church government are divided, namely, the Con- 
gregational, Presbyterian, or Episcopalian, can bring 
a divine command, a " Thus saith the Lord," for its 

8* 



178 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



distinctive peculiarities, each must acknowledge that 
it has been guided, in some things at least, from pru- 
dential considerations. Deferring the proofs in sup- 
port of the position to a future number, I will now 
assume it as a fact, that in the early ages of Christi- 
anity those who were ordained presbyters or bishops 
considered it as their right to ordain others ; but as 
this practice led to collisions and insubordination, and 
seriously threatened the peace and unity of the churchy 
it was gradually discontinued, the power of ordination 
w r as restrained, until finally, from usage, it became a 
settled law of the church, that it should be exercised 
by those only who in after times were denominated 
bishops, in distinction from presbyters. This was a 
regulation which they adopted among themselves, as 
they supposed, for mutual convenience, never dream- 
ing at first, I apprehend, that it would afterward be so 
claimed by these superior officers, as to disannul all 
ordinations performed by presbyters, however urgent 
and forcible might be the plea, from necessity or pri- 
mitive usage. But such, it seems, was the fact ; and 
they have not wanted successors in these modern days, 
who echo their pretensions in the same style of exclu- 
siveness. More of this, however, hereafter. 

It may be objected, moreover, that if the arguments 
adduced in favor of presbyterial ordination be sound, 
then may any number of presbyters in our own church 
perform the ceremony of consecration. This by no 
means follows. For if, as I think has been clearly 
shown, a church has the right of regulating its own 
internal concerns, of forming rules and regulations for 
its own domestic government, then it follows that all 
those who enter into this communion are bound, in 
honor and conscience, to abide by all such rules and 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 179 

regulations. This, indeed, is the case with all volun- 
tary associations, and all civil and ecclesiastical com- 
pacts. A number of individuals associate together for 
some scientific, moral, or benevolent purpose ; that all 
things may " be done decently and in order," and move 
on harmoniously together, they adopt a set of rules, 
or frame a constitution, for the regulation of their con- 
duct ; and all those who join the compact bind them- 
selves to the observance of the rules of the association. 
These are the terms of membership. So it is in all 
churches. Hence those who voluntarily connect them- 
selves with any particular denomination of Christians, 
do, by that very act, bind themselves to the observ- 
ance of the rules, regulations, canons, or by whatever 
name the laws of the association may be called; and 
so long as they remain members they are not at 
liberty, have indeed no right, to violate the rules which 
bind them together. 

Well, the Methodist Episcopal Church has seen 
fit, thinking it has violated no Scriptural precept, to 
commit the power of ordination to a grade of minis- 
ters superior in office to presbyters, that it might 
maintain the primitive character of a general superin- 
tendency ; and all those who connect themselves with 
this church do thereby agree to regulate their conduct 
accordingly ; they are not, therefore, at liberty to tres- 
pass upon those rules, and thus disturb the order and 
harmony of the body ; the presbyters, having resigned 
a portion of their original and vested rights into the 
hands of the superintendents, are not at liberty to re- 
claim them, except in a case of urgent necessity. 

Such a necessity may exist. That very section in 
our ecclesiastical economy which provides for the 
episcopal office^ and prescribes its duties and respon 



180 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

sibilities, provides for the consecration of a bishop by 
the hands of the eldership, thereby clearly recognizing 
the principle for which I have contended : thus we 
read, " If by death, expulsion* or otherwise, there be 
no bishop remaining in our church, the general con- 
ference shall elect a bishop ; and the elders, or any 
three of them, who shall be appointed by the general 
conference for that purpose, shall ordain him accord- 
ing to our form of ordination. 5 ' This is one case of 
necessity which we as a church recognize as justify- 
ing episcopal ordination by the hands of elders or 
presbyters. 

It is easy to suppose others. Suppose, for in- 
stance, the Methodist Episcopal Church should be- 
come corrupt, either in respect to the doctrines 
preached by her clergy, or in general practice, as was 
the establishment in Great Britain at the time the 
Wesleys arose — so corrupt as to call as loudly for a 
reformation in doctrine and morals — and two or more 
of her clergy should " lift up their voice like a trum- 
pet," and show unto these fallen " people their sins 
and suppose that they should be instrumental in awak- 
ening a general interest in favor of pure religion, and 
God should raise them up helpers in their work, as 
he did to Wesley ; and suppose, moreover, that the 
great majority of her clergy and people should so 
cleave to their iniquities as to set themselves in battle 
array against these reforming clergymen, treat them 
as schismatics, and expel them from their churches and 
the communion of the Lord's table ; and suppose also 
that those holy men of God should apply to the bishops 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church to confer orders 
upon these helpers in the ministry, to whom it was 
manifest the Lord had " committed the word of recon- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 181 

ciliation," and their application should be contemptu- 
ously refused ; and allowing that in the midst of all 
this struggle it should appear manifest to all impartial 
men, that these holy and evangelical reformers, instead 
of departing from the fundamental principles of Me- 
thodism, made these the foundation of all their preach- 
ing and practice, enforcing upon the people also those 
prudential regulations which Methodism had adopted 
for the regulation of the moral and Christian conduct 
of its ministers and members ; these things, I humbly 
conceive, would amply justify those thus circum- 
stanced to depart from the customary rules of ordina- 
tion ; and by furnishing them with a powerful plea in 
favor of a deviation from canonical order, it would be 
a case of necessity, the exact precedent for which 
would be found in the original organization of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. Such a case, I say, 
would be an exact parallel to the one w T hich existed 
in the days of Wesley. 

And if the time should ever unhappily arrive when 
the Methodist Episcopal Church should become thus 
fallen, happy would it be for the world if some master 
spirit, Wesley like, should arise in the name of the 
Lord, to revive her doctrines and discipline, and to 
carry her ministry and membership back to her pri- 
mitive standing and purity. Such a reformer would 
have a precedent in the conduct of Wesley and others 
of a like character, which would furnish him with an 
irresistible argument in favor of his proceedings. 

But let no man plead that because he is dissatis- 
fied with the conduct of a few individuals, or some 
non-essential things not at all affecting the vital inte- 
rests of religion, he is thereby justified in departing 
from the established usages of the church in the par- 



182 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

ticulars enumerated, and then cite the example of 
Wesley for his justification. Wesley did not fall out 
with either the doctrines, liturgy, or government of the 
establishment. Hence he did not begin his ministerial 
career by a whining complaint against oppression from 
his superiors or inferiors, nor yet by sounding an 
alarm about the doctrines and orders of the church. 
His sole object was to revive the spirit of piety in the 
church ; and therefore he constantly appealed to the 
articles, homilies, and prayers of the church, as a de- 
fence against the assaults of lukewarm and fallen 
churchmen, making all his immense labors contribute 
to awaken a slumbering world from its lethargy, and 
to bring sinners to the " knowledge of the truth as it 
is in Jesus." 

How different this conduct from some of those who 
have set themselves up as reformers of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church ! These latter, instead of exerting 
their strength to reform sinners and to revive the spirit 
of piety, by a more energetic method of preaching 
and uniform enforcement of a Scriptural discipline, 
have generally fixed upon some unimportant point or 
item of church government as a theme for animadver- 
sion, and have bent their whole force to pull down 
that which their fathers and themselves had built up. 
This reprehensible conduct, mingled as it sometimes 
has been with slanders as gross as they were unkind 
and ungenerous, has led them to make war, not upon 
sin and sinners, but upon their brethren, who survived, 
and do still survive the conflict, only because their 
characters were and are beyond the reach of their vi- 
tuperation. When we thus behold pretended reform- 
ers descend from that high and holy elevation on 
which true ministers of Jesus Christ always stand, to 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



183 



deal in personal invective, in slander as vile as it is 
unchristian and unfeeling, it impels us to suspect the 
purity of their motive, and the soundness of their 
cause. Such, surely, can plead no Scriptural prece- 
dent, nor any other necessity than what originates from 
the corruption of their own distorted principles, for a 
justification of their conduct ; and therefore, so far as- 
they are instrumental in rending the visible body of 
Christ, they doubtless incur a fearful responsibility. 
He who strives to excuse himself for such unhallowed 
proceedings, by pleading the necessity of procuring a 
" morsel of bread," gives sad evidence that he values 
the present more than the future life, and that he con- 
siders godliness no farther profitable than as it " has 
the promise of the life that now is." 

I mean not by these remarks to say, that a man 
may not, even after his entrance upon the ministry 
among us, be conscientiously convinced that it is his 
duty to withdraw from our communion. He may 
think that he has detected an error in doctrine or on 
some point of church order or discipline, to which he 
can no longer submit without a dereliction of duty.. 
In such a case, after using all the helps he can bring 
to his aid to discover the truth, if he cannot conscien- 
tiously longer adhere to what may be required at his 
hands, his only alternative is to assign his reasons 
like a Christian brother, and silently retire, and go 
where he may think he can more effectually serve 
the cause of his Divine Master. But let him not, 
unless he wish his motives suspected, Parthian-like, 
shoot, as he retreats, his arrows at those he leaves 
behind him. Nor will he, I apprehend, if his heart 
be right with God, retaliate for his supposed wrongs 
by dealing in personal invective, and by manifesting 



184 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

a greater solicitude to injure those he has left, than 
he does for the salvation of a lost world. This world, 
indeed, is but little benefited by the abuse that is 
poured upon a denomination by such as may have 
apostatized from its communion ; and much less in- 
terest is felt by this same world in the wranglings of 
such individuals than an undue regard to their own 
importance might lead them to expect. 

But to return from this little digression, which, 
however, seemed naturally enough to grow out of the 
subject, I think it follows from the premises laid down, 
that whenever a body of ministers and members have 
mutually agreed to a certain set of doctrines and code 
of laws, rules, or regulations, as Scriptural and ex- 
pedient, and have bound themselves to abide by them, 
none of them have a right, unless convinced in the 
light of Scripture they were in error, or can plead 
such cases of necessity as have been enumerated, or 
some other equally plain and cogent, to disturb the 
harmony of the body by making a schism, or to 
depart from established usage to gratify whim or 
caprice. 

In my next I design to attempt to confirm some 
views entertained in this, by an appeal to the proper 

authorities. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



185 



NUMBER XIV. 

The manner in which churches were formed and ministers 
ordained — The power of ordination exercised by elders and evan- 
gelists indifferently — Proved from Eusebius — From Jerome — 
Afterward restricted to a superior order — Examples from the 
Scotch Church and others — Hence episcopal powers were conferred 
by presbyters — Proved from sundry writers — Reasons for enlarg- 
ing episcopal jurisdiction — Rural bishops employed— Results of 
this practice — Methodist episcopacy has a precedent in the itine- 
rating evangelists. 

In my last I assumed, as an admitted fact, that 
those who were ordained elders considered it their 
right to ordain others ; and that in consequence of 
this practice being followed with, perhaps, too great 
a latitude, the peace and unity of the church became 
endangered ; and with a view to stop the progress of 
this evil, as it was considered, the power of ordina- 
tion was restricted, first by submitting the question to 
synods, and secondly committing it to the hands of a 
few ministers to whom a more extended jurisdiction 
had been intrusted. It must be evident to every 
person who has at all studied the early history of the 
church, that the apostles and their assistants, in order 
to secure the most diffusive spread possible to the 
gospel of Jesus Christ, itinerated largely through the 
land, and that, wherever success attended their labors, 
they planted churches, put them under a set of gover- 
nors, whom they had " ordained elders" or bishops, 
to whom they committed the special and local over- 
sight of the churches thus established, during their 
absence. Having thus " set things in order," they 
went forward into new countries, exploring every part 
of the land to which they could have access, and in 
all places in which it was demonstrated that the 
" Lord had much people," they fulfilled their aposto- 



186 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

lie commission, by collecting together those who be- 
lieved unto eternal life, organizing them under their 
proper officers, whom they ordained by prayer and 
imposition of hands. Those assemblies, thus organ- 
ized, were denominated churches ; their rulers, under 
the apostles, elders, or bishops, three of whom, it is 
stated, were considered competent to ordain others 

That this was the primitive practice is so plain 
that it hardly needs proof. But that the reader may 
not rest his faith on mere assertion, after referring: 
him to the Acts and Epistles of the apostles, which 
should be allowed paramount authority in all such 
matters, I will cite a few other authorities from the 
early historians in the church, to show that the prac- 
tice was continued for some time after the death of 
the apostles and their immediate successors in this 
itinerating work. Eusebius is the oldest ecclesiastical 
historian we have. His history embraces a period 
of about three hundred years, namely, from the advent 
of Christ to the close of the third century. In lib. iii, 
cap. 33, he has the following passage : — 

" Among them which were famous, was Quadratus, 
whom they say (together with the daughter of Philip) 
to have been endued with the spirit of prophecy. 
And many others also at the same time flourished, 
which obtaining the first step of apostolical succession, 
and being as divine disciples of the chief and principal 
men, builded the churches everywhere planted by the 
apostles ; and preaching and sowing the celestial seed 
of the kingdom of heaven throughout the world, filled 
the barns of God with increase. For the greater part 
of the disciples then living, affected with great zeal 
toward the word of grace, first fulfilling the heavenly 
commandment, distributed their substance unto the 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 187 

poor, next taking their journey, fulfilled the work and, 
office of evangelists ; that is, they preached Christ 
unto them which as yet heard not of the doctrines of 
faith, and published earnestly the doctrines of the 
gospel. These men, having planted the faith in sundry 
new and strange places, ordained there other pastors:, 
committing unto them the tillage of new ground, and 
the oversight of such as were lately converted unto 
the faith, passing themselves unto other people and 
countries, being helpers thereunto by the grace of 
God which wrought in them." These itinerating 
evangelists and successors of the apostles, as they 
are here termed by Eusebius, were so numerous that 
he says, " It is impossible to rehearse all by name, 
when and who were the pastors and evangelists, in 
the first succession" I have marked those words 
and sentences in italics, to which I would especially 
direct the attention of the reader, as supporting the 
doctrine I have advanced in the paragraph preceding 
the quotation. 

In his fifth book, chap. 9^ the same writer speaks 
of the burning zeal of Pantemus and others who were 
employed in a similar work. Eusebius says, " He 
is said to have showed such a willing mind toward 
the publishing the doctrines of Christ, that he became 
the preacher of the gospel unto the eastern Gentiles, 
and was sent as far as India. For there were, I say, 
there were then, many evangelists prepared for this 
purpose, to promote and plant the heavenly word with 
zeal, after the guise of the apostles." 

• From this quotation, it is evident that the itinerat- 
ing evangelists did exercise the power of ordination. 
But whether they were consecrated by the imposition 
of hands a third time for that purpose, or whether 



188 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



they performed this service by virtue of their order 
as presbyters invested with an enlarged jurisdiction, 
is more than I am able to determine from any authentic 
history of those times. This practice, however, to- 
gether with the exercise of the same powers promis- 
cuously by the presbyters, finally led to contentions 
among brethren, destructive to the peace and unity 
of the body of Christ, some contending that improper 
persons were admitted to the sacred office. 

In consequence of this it became necessary to adopt 
some general regulation m respect to the manner in 
which persons should be selected and consecrated to 
the office of deacons and elders. This view of the 
subject is supported by the testimony of St. Jerome, 
who flourished in the fourth century. In his dialogue 
with Lucifer, he says 

The safety of the church depends upon the 
dignity of the high priest, to whom, if some supreme 
power be not given, by oil, there will be as many 
schisms as there are priests." Some have quoted 
these words to prove that Jerome meant to assert the 
divine appointment of a third order in the ministry ; 
whereas his object evidently was to show that this 
method was adopted as a matter of convenience, to 
preserve the church from being rent by parties. The 
same thing is asserted by A.ntonius de Rosellis, where 
he says, speaking of the ancient customs of the 
church, in respect to ordination, f" Every presbyter 

* The following are Jerome's words :— " Ecclesia salus, in 
summi sacerdotis dignitate pendet, cui si non exsors quaedam et 
ab omnibus eminens detur protestas, tot in ecclesiis efficientur 
schismata quot sacerdotes." 

f Quilibet presbyter et presbyteri ordanibant indiscrete, et 
schismata oriebantur. (See Iren. pp. 275, 277.) 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 189 

and presbyters did ordain indifferently, and thence 
arose schisms" 

These two quotations fully sustain the postulatum 
laid down in the former number, that those who had 
been ordained presbyters themselves considered it 
their right to ordain others at their own discretion ; 
and that this practice leading to confusions and schisms 
in the church, they were induced to restrict this right 
by confining the power of ordination either to one 
superior minister, or to a certain number of pres- 
byters, after the candidate was approved of by a 
presbytery. 

It seems, indeed, to follow necessarily from the 
principles already established ; I mean from the fact 
that the apostles did not settle by divine authority 
any particular form of church government ; that the 
primitive church was not at first reduced to any uni- 
form and consolidated form, and hence no doubt that 
each insulated church was modelled and governed 
with some degree of peculiarity, regulating its affairs 
as the exigencies of the people might dictate to be 
expedient, so as to accomplish the greatest amount 
of good. But on the increase of the churches it be- 
came necessary to introduce more uniformity ; and, 
to prevent too great a diversity of administrations, 
they abridged individual liberty, that the good of the 
whole might be the more certainly secured. That 
this was the case in respect to the power of the pres- 
byters, so far as it regarded the government of the 
church and the conferring orders, is evident from the 
following facts, which I borrow from that learned and 
excellent work, so often quoted, — namely, Bishop 
Stillingfleet's Irenicum, see pp. 374, 375,* where 

* Stillingfleet's book was published in 1662, at a time when 



190 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



he is speaking of the supposed necessity of bishops 
as an order superior to elders, and contesting the 
question of their divine right* The following is the 

the Protestant Church of England was much disturbed with 
conflicting opinions respecting the orders of its ministry and 
the mode of its government. This the author laments in most 
pathetic strains in his preface. In view of the contentions 
which raged within the churches in consequence of the freedom 
of inquiry which the emancipation from the shackles of popery 
brought with it, the author applies to the church the following 
touching lines : 

" The eagle saw her breast was wounded sore, 
She stood, and weeped much, but grieved more ; 
But when she saw the dart was feather'd, said, 
Wo's me, for my own kind hath me destroy 'd." 

With a desire to heal the wounds which these contentions 
had inflicted upon the Protestant world, and to mitigate the 
asperities of religious controversy, Stillingfleet wrote and pub- 
lished his work ; and hence the title, Irenicum, from Eipcd, 
which signifies to knit, or to connect ; and in the New Testa- 
ment is translated to make peace, because peace supposes the 
removal of those things which caused war or contention, and 
a connecting together parties which were before at variance. 
And as the author thought he must make war upon error in 
order to insure the peaceful triumph of truth, he also entitled 
his book " A iveapon-salve for the Church? s wounds" How 
far it accomplished its benevolent object I cannot tell. 

But to weaken the influence of his arguments, it is said that 
Stillingfleet afterward recanted his principles. I may reply 
to this in the language of Bishop White, that it was " easier 
for him to recant than it is to answer his arguments." These 
will remain as a monument of his learning and diligence, and 
of his impartial regard to truth, when the memory of those 
honors which were heaped upon him in after days by the hie- 
rarchy of England, in calling him to fill the episcopal chair, 
shall be forgotten. It is not meant by this remark to impeach 
his sincerity, but simply to show that " great men are not 
always" wisest in their elder days, even when they attempt to 
correct the supposed errors of their youth. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 191 

substance of what he says on the subject. I say the 
substance — for I do not quote his entire language. 
He says, " If we may credit historians, some nations 
were without any bishops at all. If we may believe 
the ancient annalists of the Church of Scotland, that 
church was governed by their culdei, as they called 
their presbyters, from the time of their conversion, 
about the year 263, to the time they were visited by 
Palladius, in 430. In other places, as in France, 
after having been ruled a long time by simple pres- 
byters, they finally, for the reasons already assigned, 
elected one from among the presbyters, to be head 
over the rest, with episcopal powers, as Pothinus was 
at Lyons. And we nowhere read in the early planta- 
tion of churches, where there were presbyters already, 
that they sent to other churches for episcopal power 
to ordain them." Hence it follows, that when the 
time arrived in which they thought it expedient to 
invest one of their number with a superior jurisdiction 
over the presbyters, for the purpose of preserving 
peace and unity, they selected one from among them- 
selves, and three of the presbyters ordained him. A 
powerful precedent this, for the manner in which 
Methodist episcopacy was created. 

And that this practice prevailed quite extensively 
in the church, during the latter part of the second, 
and more yet in the third century, is manifest from 
the same author, though he produces the facts for a 
different purpose than that for which I cite them. 
He quotes from Sozomon to prove that in many cities 
they had but one bishop. " That Godignas relates 
of the Abyssinian churches, which comprehended a 
vast extent of territory, there was but one bishop in 
its whole extent. Theodoret mentions eight hundred 



192 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

churches under his own charge." Many others of a 
similar character are mentioned. 

Then, again, " there were churches where there 
had been bishops once, but were afterward discon- 
tinued. So it was at Rome, when from the banish- 
ment of Lucius, and the martyrdom of Fabian, the 
church was governed by the clergy. The church 
of Carthage was twenty-four years without a bishop, 
during the invasion of Hunerick, the Vandal king." 

These facts, all of which Stillingfleet supports by 
unquestionable authorities, are sufficient to establish 
these two propositions, both of which are recognized in 
the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church:— 

1. That episcopal powers may be conferred on 
presbyters by presbyters. 

2. That though these superior officers are not es- 
sential to the existence of a Christian church, yet 
they are allowable on Christian principles, and that 
the utility of their office is to be inferred from its 
tending to preserve the peace and harmony of the 
church. 

It will be perceived that it is not easy to fix on the 
exact date when the presbyters were thus restrained 
in the exercise of their full powers, It is manifest, 
however, that the custom of ordaining by presbyters 
simply, prevailed longer in some churches than in 
others, and that in those early days of Christianity, 
it was nowhere considered essential to the integrity 
of the church to have a third order in the ministry ; 
although, so far as jurisdiction was concerned, it ap- 
pears that superior ministers were recognized from 
the beginning. This will explain what is meant in 
the above quotations, where it is said that one bishop 
had so many churches under his jurisdiction. One 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 193 

from among the rest, distinguished for his worth of 
character, was selected for the purpose of overseeing 
the general affairs of the church in a particular pro- 
vince — of presiding in their councils — and of dividing 
among the presbyters who were under his jurisdiction 
their separate fields of labor. In this particular, also, 
we have an archetype of Methodist episcopacy, in 
some of its more general features. 

The facts in the case appear to be these : — The 
apostles, and, after their decease, the itinerating evan- 
gelists, had an extensive oversight of the whole church. 
These last, as may be seen by the quotation from 
Eusebius, were followed by others of a similar cha- 
racter and spirit, who, so far as they imitated their 
pious zeal and evangelical labors, contributed to ad- 
vance the interests of Christianity among barbarous 
nations, as well as to bring the churches into greater 
consistency and order. As, however, the churches 
increased in number and wealth, these itinerating 
evangelists became more and more restricted in their 
labors, and this general superintendency gave place 
to one more local in its character, until the name by 
which they were distinguished became extinct, and 
was substituted by that of bishop. 

Another thing which contributed to this result was 
this : — Those bishops to whom the charge of a church 
in a populous city was committed, soon found them- 
selves in possession of riocks so numerous that it was 
beyond their power to attend to their wants person- 
ally themselves. In consequence of this, separate 
congregations were formed, over whom presbyters 
were placed, under the general supervision of those 
bishops; and with a view to supply these new con- 
gregations regularly with the ordinances of Christi- 

9 



194 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST* 

anity, as they continually multiplied in the surrounding 
villages and country places, these metropolitan bishops 
— as they were finally called, by way of distinction 
from the country bishops—employed ministers of their 
own order, whom they denominated x^P^^onoc, chor- 
episcopoi, or country bishops, because they were sent 
into the country to superintend the affairs of the 
church. And though these rural bishops were of the 
same order with the presbyters, yet they were invested, 
for the time being, with superior powers in respect to 
jurisdiction, for the purpose of exercising a salutary 
control over the congregations they might visit. They 
doubtless resembled the presiding elders of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church ; and Mosheim says, that during 
the fourth century this order was in most places sup- 
pressed by the bishops, with a view to extend their 
own authority, and to enlarge the bounds of their 
power and jurisdiction. [See chap. 11, cent, iv.] 

By the introduction of this practice, which seemed 
at first innocently enough to grow out of the prosper- 
ous circumstances of the church, the power and juris- 
diction of those bishops which occupied the principal 
cities of the empire were continually enlarged, and 
with this enlargement their claims were increased, and 
their pride and pomposity dangerously augmented, 
until, finally, each of these bishops considered himself 
the governing head and chief ruler in his respective 
province, or diocese, as the territory over which he 
ruled was thenceforth called. Hence we read of the 
bishops of Rome, of Constantinople, of Antioch, of 
Alexandria, and of Carthage, all of whom grew into 
importance in the manner I have related, and so ex- 
tended the bounds of their jurisdiction, as to include 
within each many smaller cities, and even whole pro- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



195 



vinces, having presbyters, deacons, and a multitude 
of minor officers under their control. As each of 
these metropolitan bishops, as they came to be called, 
were considered equal in power and authority, from 
that equality originated jealousies and disputes, until 
finally the bishop of Rome, with a haughtiness unbe- 
coming the character of a Christian bishop, asserted 
and obtained the pre-eminence over all his competitors, 
and was thence hailed, in the sixth century, as pope 
or father of the whole church. So dangerous is it to 
depart from the simplicity of Christ. 

This historical sketch is given for the purpose of 
showing that the government of the church was gra- 
dually moulded into a more compact form, so as to 
meet the exigencies of the times, and to preserve it 
from being torn into factions, by too great a laxity in 
the exercise of discipline, and too much of a diversity 
of administration. And hence it appears that that 
which was adopted at first as a matter of convenience, 
from the best of motives, became an occasion of an 
opposite evil, that is, of concentrating too much power 
in a single person, by which the liberties of both min- 
isters and people became prostrated, and popery, with 
all its unscriptural aspects and despotic features, ob- 
tained its usurped dominion. The itinerating evan- 
gelists, who succeeded and trod in the steps of the 
apostles, in exercising a general superintendency over 
the churches, were followed in the manner I have de- 
scribed by a local episcopacy, the members of which, 
instead of performing the labors, and submitting to the 
privations of their eminent predecessors, contented 
themselves with a nominal jurisdiction, performing 
their work by proxy — -by the agency of those rural, 
or, as they have been called in more modern times, 
suffragan bishops. 



196 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

Now in these itinerating evangelists we think we 
have an archetype of our episcopacy. It is well 
known by all those who have any acquaintance with 
our ecclesiastical economy, that those we denominate 
bishops have been from the beginning, and are still, 
itinerating ministers, to whom is committed, not as of 
divine right, but as a domestic regulation of our own, 
which we have found to have a most salutary influence 
upon the church, the power of ordination, of presiding 
in our conferences, and of stationing the preachers,, 
All the difference, therefore, between us and the Pro- 
testant Episcopalians, in this point, is, they believe 
that for their order of bishops they have a divine right, 
originating of course from an express command of 
God ; and that the power of conferring orders upon 
others has always, from the apostles' days, been con- 
fined exclusively to that third order ; whereas we be- 
lieve that this third order was not so established by 
Jesus Christ and his apostles as to render it perpe- 
tually binding upon the church, but that the power of 
ordination was originally bestowed on the eldership, 
and that they continued its exercise as their right un- 
til they voluntarily, from prudential considerations, 
relinquished it as above described. 

In my next I design to examine this question of 
uninterrupted succession of a third order in the min- 
istry, which the above doctrine of the Protestant Epis- 
copalians involves. If it be sound, then will all my 
labor be lost, and the Methodist Episcopal Church 
will be found to be a continuation of an ancient schism 
with which the true church has long been afflicted ; 
but if it be indeed sound, the consequences, I fear, 
will be equally fatal to all the reformed churches, and 
we must, to save ourselves from the curse of heresy, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 197 



go back to " mother church," and join with her, as 
reclaimed children, in worshipping a wafer god, and 
adoring the Virgin as the chief patroness of all the 
saints. 



NUMBER XV. 

The doctrine of succession — That bishops always existed is not 
disputed— This is not the question — True state of the question 
propounded — Succession not a divine institution — Not command- 
ed ; nor practised by the primitive church — The existence of a 
third order denied — For several reasons — It was a usurpation — 
Examination of Dr. Chapman on 1 Tim. iv, 4 — Dr. Cook's Es- 
says unsound — Triple consecration not proveable either from 
Scripture or the fathers — The contrary proved— The true state of 
the question. 

I promised in my last to examine the doctrine of 
uninterrupted succession, as claimed by the high 
church party both in Europe and America. That this 
subject may be fairly presented to the reader, it is 
necessary that he should clearly understand what is 
meant by this uninterrupted succession. 

And let it be remembered, that the question is not 
whether there has always been an order of ministers 
in the church denominated bishops : this is not dis- 
puted. When, therefore, Dr. Chapman, who seems 
to be among the most confident advocates of this doc- 
trine, says, " That actual succession has never been 
lost or impaired, because, ever since the institution of 
the Christian ministry, bishops have always existed, 
and always exercised what they considered the exclu- 
sive right to ordain and send forth their successors, 
and other laborers, into the vineyard of Christ," he 
advances — with the exception of the exclusive right — 
what no one disputes ; but it is equally certain that 



198 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

he advances and proves nothing to his purpose ; for 
the question is not whether there have always been 
bishops, but whether there has been, from the apos- 
tles' days :— 

A third order in the church, superior in order and 
office to those denominated presbyters or bishops in 
the primitive church, who, by virtue of this office, had 
the exclusive right of ordination. This is the ques- 
tion which Dr. Chapman should have stated and proved, 
in-order to sustain his position. But this, I venture 
to affirm, he neither has proved nor can prove ; and 
yet, until he does, his arguments are as fatal to his 
own cause as they are to those of his antagonists. 
As I have before said, if he will bring explicit proof 
of this point, I will, if his church will accept of me, 
consent to a reconsecration, and also induce as many 
of my brethren as I can to follow my example. There 
is another branch to this inquiry, equally essential for 
the maintenance of their cause. They hold, it must 
be remembered, that this third order in the ministry 
is a divine right. 

Now what is necessary to constitute a divine right ? 
It must be divinely instituted. It must rest on an 
express and explicit command of God. Nothing less 
than this will suffice to constitute any ordinance or 
ceremony divine. But it requires more than this to 
establish this doctrine of the divine institution of dio- 
cesan episcopacy, as held by a portion of the Protes- 
tant Episcopalians. They must bring an explicit 
command that this institution is of perpetual obligation 
in the churchy in all ages, and under all circumstances, 
For there have been divine ordinances, specially insti- 
tuted by the command of God himself, — such, for in- 
stance, as circumcision and the sacrifices, under the 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 199 



law — which are not of perpetual obligation. Nor is 
it necessary only to prove that the apostles did thus 
and so ; for they did some things which are not bind- 
ing upon the church now : so St. Paul circumcised 
Timothy — made a vow, and shaved his head, and 
went into the temple, according to the Jewish method 
of purification. But these practices, surely, are not 
binding upon Christians.* 

These two things, therefore, our antagonists must 
make out unequivocally from the plain command of 
God :— 

L That a third order in the Christian ministry, 
superior to what were called in the apostles^ days pres- 
byters or bishops, is a divine institution, so constituted 
by an explicit command of God. 

2. That this order has been uninterruptedly con- 
tinued in the church from the apostles' days to the 
present time, and that to them belongs the exclusive 
right of ordination. 

I deny both these propositions — and demand the 
proof. 

Here, in all fairness, I might rest the cause, for the 
onus prohandi, the burden of the proof, rests upon 
them. No man is bound to prove a negative. I might, 

* I do not mean by this remark to say, that, if it can be proved 
the apostles did establish the form of church government now- 
recognized by the Protestant Episcopalians, that we are not 
bound to follow it Such an establishment, I allow, would 
be a precedent sufficient to justify them in their proceedings, 
and to nullify their antagonists 1 arguments. But I deny, and 
found my denial on the testimonies previously produced, that 
the apostles or their immediate successors ever established such 
a government — that they ever did make it such an essential 
feature in the Christian ministry, that there must be a third 
order, to which belonged exclusively the power of consecrating 
others. 



200 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

therefore, so far as justice is concerned, here close my 
arguments, and assume it as undeniably established 
that no such divine institution exists, and that no such 
succession can be sustained. 

But I will not avail myself of this advantage. I 
will undertake to prove a negative — not indeed that 
God never commanded such a thing — by bringing a 
command that it should not be — but all the negative 
proof of which the subject admits, I have ; and that 
is, the total absence of all positive proof— there is no 
such command in all the Bible. He who disputes 
this proof is at liberty to bring the command — and that 
will settle the question. Until this is done — and I 
think it never will be — I am justified in considering 
this point established — that there is no such divine 
right. It rests solely on an assumption of human 
authority, and, therefore, is binding upon no man — 
upon no church — to keep up a third order in the minis- 
try, except upon such as have made it so by a volun- 
tary compact. 

But that such a third order did not exist in the 
Christian church from the days of the apostles, to 
whom the exclusive right of ordination belonged, I 
have already proved from all those testimonies I have 
brought to substantiate the position that presbyters did 
ordain in the apostolic days, and for more than three 
hundred years afterward. Until, therefore, this mass 
of testimony is set aside by counter testimony, more 
numerous and strong, this labor is already performed, 
and by it the doctrine of an uninterrupted succession 
of a third order superior to presbyters, is annihilated. 
This pretended unbroken chain is severed, or rather 
was never completed, because it lacks the links neces- 
sary to make it extend back from the beginning of the 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 201 

fourth to the beginning of the first century. Let its 
advocates supply these lost links if they can — and if 
they cannot, as I aver, and am ready to retract when- 
ever they will produce them, then let them acknow- 
ledge their incompetency to the onerous task they 
have imposed upon themselves. 

The reader must indulge a little repetition and 
latitude on this branch of the subject, more especially 
as it is the strong hold of the sticklers for the divine 
right of diocesan episcopacy. I must therefore be 
permitted to recapitulate in substance my proofs in 
favor of presbyterial ordination in the apostolic 
days : — 

L St. Paul and Timothy were ordained by pres-> 
byters. 

2. The Alexandrian church ordained by pres- 
byters. 

3. The presbyters claimed it as their right ori- 
ginally to ordain others. 

4. This practice continued in the church for more 
than three centuries. 

Here then, during all this time, there was no 
essentiality pleaded in favor of a third order above 
presbyters to constitute a valid ordination. 

That the apostles and their successors ordained, 
and that those who succeeded them in the govern- 
ment of the church did the same, makes nothing in 
favor of the assumption here exploded. Though they 
did this, we have no proof that they were consecrated 
especially for that service ; and that it was not con- 
sidered their exclusive right is demonstrable from the 
fact — a fact as strongly supported as any found upon 
the historic page — that presbyters did actually ordain 
others. The succession therefore is void. It is 

9* 



202 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

indeed " a fable" of man's invention. I fearlessly 
pronounce it such, and challenge the proof of its 
reality. 

But to sweep this cobweb from the shelf of eccle- 
siastical libraries, where it has lain as an entangler 
for the flies of clerical upstarts, I will refer the reader 
to the facts, distinctly stated in my previous numbers, 
which prove that— 

Presbyters did claim and exercise the power of 
ordination for more than three hundred years y and in 
the Scotch Church until the year 430. 

This being the fact, it undeniably follows, that 
whenever the exclusive right of ordination was claimed, 
— I do not say exercised merely — by a third order as 
distinct from and superior to presbyters, it was a 
usurpation. And hence it follows, that those who 
perpetuate this claim to the exclusion of all others 
are upholders of an ancient usurpation over the rights 
and liberties of the presbyters. This remark does 
not apply to those presbyters who, for good and justi- 
fiable reasons, voluntarily relinquished their rights of 
order and jurisdiction. But I repeat, that those who 
have set up this exclusive claim, as an indispensable 
prerequisite to a valid ordination, have usurped 
powers which did not belong to them; and that those 
who plead for its continuance in a third order are 
justifiers of this same usurpation, in defiance of 
Scriptural authority and apostolic usage. 

As, however, I have several times alluded to Dr. 
Chapman's discourses on this subject, it seems proper 
that I should examine some of his assertions in favor 
of this supposed divine institution of a third order in 
the ministry. In commenting upon the passage before 
quoted, " Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 203 



was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the 
hands of the presbytery," he says, " The preposition, 
with, at most, merely implies concurrence, and not 
the creative power asserted in the parallel passage : 
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir 
up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting 
on of my hands." This criticism manifestly shows 
the lameness of the cause he was anxious to sustain. 

It is evident that the apostle could not with any 
propriety use the same preposition when speaking of 
the association of the presbytery in the consecration 
of Timothy that he did when speaking of his own 
singly ;* and hence he uses the preposition with, 
which not only denotes concurrence of will, but a con- 
currence in the act itself, whatever it was, by w r hich 
the " gift" was conferred upon Timothy ; so that 
whatever creative poivers were asserted to have been 
bestowed upon him, they were the joint act of all the 
presbyters who laid hands on him. Can any other 
consistent interpretation be given to the passage ? 
" Yes," says Dr. Chapman, " it merely implies a con- 
currence." But what sort of a concurrence ? It is 
most manifest from the text that it was a concurrence 
of action— -a united or associated act of the presbytery 
alone — for the apostle does not even mention himself 
as taking any part in the ceremony. He does not say 
the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, together 
with my own. I allow indeed that, taking the parallel 
passage, it is possible that the presbyters might have 
been associated with the apostle in the act of conse-« 
cration, yet the probability is that the apostle first 
ordained Timothy a deacon, and that afterward he 

* With the putting on of my hands, would have been a very 
awkward expression. 



204 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



was set apart to the office of an elder by the imposi- 
tion of the hands of the presbytery, the apostle pos- 
sibly acting as president of the council. Be this as 
it may, no just criticism can do away the plain de- 
claration of the apostle, that Timothy had been inducted 
into his high office, not merely by the " concurrence," 
consent, or will, but " by the laying on of the hands 
of the presbytery." Here, therefore, one of the chief 
links is wanting to the chain of the uninterrupted suc- 
cession of a third order in the ministry, claiming the 
exclusive right of ordination ; for whatever Timothy 
was, whether an apostle or a diocesan bishop of 
Ephesus — and our author claims him in both of these 
characters — evangelist, elder, or presbyter, he was 
created such by the imposition of the hands of pres- 
byters. All, therefore, which Dr. Chapman says 
about the apostolic character of Timothy, makes no- 
thing in favor of his cause. The higher Timothy is 
exalted, the more dignity is conferred upon presby- 
ters ; for whatever he was in an ecclesiastical sense, 
he was made such by those who consecrated him to 
his office. But, before Timothy can be set up as a 
precedent for the exclusive right of ordination in a 
third order, superior to presbyters, it must be proved 
that he himself was consecrated three several times 
— first, a deacon — secondly, an elder — and thirdly, a 
bishop, or an apostle, by some one who had himself 
been thus consecrated in the same manner and for the 
same purpose. Will Dr. Chapman, or some of his 
" distinguished converts" — for he boasts that he has 
" reclaimed a large number from the ranks of schism" 
— bring from his " elaborated array of facts" a proof 
that Timothy, or any one of the apostles or their 
assistants, received this triple induction into office ? 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



205 



And let it be remembered, that until this is done, their 
" array of facts, the result of intense and unwearied 
application,"* will pass for nothing. They may prove 
that all who ordained others were denominated bishops, 
or even apostles, and I Will not dispute them, simply 
because it will not touch the point in controversy. 
But one clear passage, well authenticated, proving that 
those thus denominated bishops in the first two 
centuries, passed up under the imposition of the hands 
of some one who had himself been thrice ordained, 
through the first and second grade to the third order — 

* See preface to the second edition of Dr. Chapman's 
" Sermons upon the Ministry, Worship, and Doctrines of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church." In these sermons, if I rightly 
comprehend the author, he sets up the most rigid claims to high 
apostolic authority, and an unimpaired succession of a third order 
in the ministry, not allowing even a case of the most urgent 
necessity a justifiable excuse for a deviation from his rule. 

I suppose the " distinguished convert" to whom Dr. Chap- 
man alludes in this preface is John Eston Cook, M. D., who 
has published the reasons of his conversion to high episcopa- 
lianism. I have looked over his Essay with some degree of 
attention, and cannot but observe the loose manner in which he 
has jumbled things together, the whole performance evincing- 
the absence of that nice discrimination which is indispensable to 
an accurate examination of such a subject. For instance, he 
confounds order with office ; so that because he finds bishops 
having charge of presbyters, hastily concludes the former were 
a higher order in the ministry ; and then, without bringing a 
single proof, either from the Sacred Scriptures or the early 
fathers, he illogic ally infers that these bishops were created such 
by a triple consecration. This is all gratuitous assumption. 

Again : Dr. Cook confounds the first, second, third, and 
fourth centuries together, and concludes, that because he finds 
bishops with diocesan powers in the third and fourth centuries, 
therefore they derived their powers from apostles ; not consider- 
ing that an unscriptural usurpation of assumed powers began to 
show itself at this period of the church. His quotations, there- 
fore, from the fathers of the third and fourth centuries in favor 



206 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

and the question is settled, the controversy ends, and 
diocesan episcopacy triumphs in the divinity of its 
original. 

This, however, has never yet been done, and I fully 
believe never will. 

And yet, until it is done, " boasting is excluded" 
from the ranks of apostolic successionists. 

Or, if they will bring an express command of God 
that so it must be, and not otherwise, we will yield 
the point — though it will be with reluctance that we 
should consent thus to impeach apostles, bishops, and 
presbyters, for having left undone that which God had 
positively commanded. 

The same remarks will apply to what the above 
author has said respecting the testimony of Jerome, 
Polycrates, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and others, 

of a third order prove just nothing. The mitred heads of the 
fourth century were as little like the crowns which adorned the 
brows of the apostles and their immediate successors, as the 
gowns of modern diocesans are like the cloak of St. Paul. The 
halo of glory which surrounded those first ministers of Jesus 
Christ, and the highest rulers in the church, coming from the 
" Sun of righteousness," was reflected through a medium which 
resembled more the " crown of thorns" which was worn in mock 
dignity by the Saviour of the world, than it did the gaudy mitres 
of some of their pretended successors. 

Any one, therefore, who would present us with an archetype 
of the true church of Christ, must not seek among the rubbish 
of the third and fourth centuries, but go back to the golden days 
of the first, or at least to the silvery records of the second 
century, to furnish himself with materials. 

To speak without metaphor, he must distinguish between 
apostles and bishops, between the power of ordination and the 
power of jurisdiction, between order and office, and also between 
the name of an officer in the church, which is his ecclesiastical 
designation, and the name derived merely from age and that 
dignity of character acquired from a long and laborious service, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 207 

respecting the bishopric of Timothy and Titus. Allow- 
ing that they were diocesan bishops — which I do not 
believe — still the question returns with all its force, 
Were they made such, as to order, by a triple conse- 
cration ? And then, Did they possess the exclusive 
right of ordination ? Until the affirmative is given to 
these questions — and I believe it never can be truly — 
the admission goes for nothing. And as " from no- 
thing, nothing comes," so those who undertake to 
derive their succession from this imaginary source, 
build only aerial castles, which the smallest puff of 
truth demolishes, and leaves not even " a wreck 
behind." 

The most, therefore, that can with any show of 
truth and justice be claimed, is that some time in the 
fourth century these pretensions began to be set up in 
favor of the exclusive right of ordination in a third 
order, superior to presbyters. And every body knows 
that this was the period of the church when corrup- 
tion began to make its fearful inroads among both 
clergy and people, the former leading the way by 
their lordly example, their love of pomp and worldly 
grandeur. It was at this period also, the empire 
having become nominally Christian under the dominion 
of Constantine, that the ecclesiastics began to shape 
and mould the government of the church after the 
model of the empire. As they found the latter 
divided into provinces under the guardianship of 
governors appointed by the emperor, so those bishops, 
ambitious to distinguish themselves as the successors 
of the apostles, divided the church into separate dis- 
tricts, after the manner of the civil divisions, with a 
bishop of enlarged powers at the head of each diocese, 
with his presbyters, deacons, and divers other inferior 



208 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

officers, under his jurisdiction ; and with a view to 
enhance the assumed dignity of his character, he made 
continual encroachments, being aided by general 
councils, which had now become more common than 
heretofore, upon the rights and liberties of the pres- 
byters and people, until finally, after a long and bitter 
struggle between the bishops of Rome and Con- 
stantinople, almost all power was concentrated in a 
single head, namely, in the bishop of Rome. 

Here, then, in this accumulating mass of moral 
and spiritual pollution, we may fix the source of that 
assumption of the exclusive right of ordination in a 
third order, which is now claimed by high-toned Epis- 
copalians. And if it will afford them any consolation, 
I will not dispute with them the noble prerogative of 
setting their claims to this high antiquity. But if they 
will trace it to any more remote period, and to a purer 
source, by bringing passage, chapter and verse, I 
will most cheerfully retract all I have said in opposi- 
tion to it. 

But let them not doge the question. Let them 
not tell us that there has always been an order in the 
church called bishops, who claimed the right of 
ordination. This is not disputed. They must bring 
testimony, strong and unequivocal, that there has 
always been a third order, made such by a triple con- 
secration, to whom alone belonged the right of invest- 
ing others with holy orders ; and to make good their 
claim to a divine right for this order as essential to a 
valid ministry, they must also bring an express com- 
mand of God that thus it must be, and not otherwise; 
yea, they must go a little farther still — they must 
show us the genealogical table, with the names of the 
bishops inserted, of this third order, without a single 



AN" ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



209 



chasm, if they would make good the validity of their 
own ordinations, from either the first bishop of Rome, 
Constantinople, Antioch, or Carthage ; and they must 
moreover prove that the first bishop who occupied 
the episcopal chair in the diocese from whence they 
choose to trace their descent, was himself ordained 
thrice by another bishop who had been ordained by a 
triple consecration ; or else show that the Lord Jesus 
Christ himself placed him there, and by an explicit 
warrant invested him with these exclusive powers. 

This is their work. And as I have before, so again 
I deny each and all these assumptions. I challenge 
the advocates of an unbroken line of succession to 
the proof of either or all of them. 

In the meantime, I have not yet done with this 
subject of apostolic succession. I shall endeavor to 
show, by other testimonies, not only that " it is a fable 
of man's invention," but that it had its origin as above 
suggested, in human pride and spiritual pollution — 
that God has frowned upon it, and that he claims the 
awful prerogative of dashing it to pieces whenever, 
as it has often done, it stands in the way of his work- 
ing. I pledge myself, life and health permitting, to 
bring the word of God itself to show 7 that a priest- 
hood, though it may be nominally in the line of suc- 
cession which God himself had established, has made, 
and therefore may again make itself obnoxious to his 
sore displeasure, by its manifest and flagrant abuses 
of his mercies, and of its own privileges. 

Before, however, I come to this branch of the topic, 
it will be my endeavor to examine this pretension in 
the light of some more historical facts, presented to 
us in the annals of the church, and particularly the 
genealogical tables of Eusebius and others, on which 



210 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

so much dependence is placed for the maintenance of 
this fabled succession. 



NUMBER XVI. 

Same subject continued — Dr. Chapman's assertion in favor of 
succession unsupported — Tables in Mosheim, derived from Eu- 
sebius, apocryphal — If true, not in point— Quotation from Drew, 
proving the fabulous character of the doctrine of succession — 
Stillingfleet against succession — Dr. Calamy also — Church of Al- 
exandria — of Antioch, all uncertain — Succession of Rome equally 
dubious — Contradictory accounts of the writers on this subject — 
No dependance should be placed on the succession. 

This doctrine of an unbroken succession, being a 
bugbear by which weak and timid minds have been 
frightened into a belief that the true church is to be 
found only among those who can trace their origin 
through an uninterrupted line of bishops of a third 
order in the ministry, deserves farther consideration. 
Hence I promised, in my last, to look at those eccle- 
siastical tables to which reference has been made by 
Dr. Chapman and others. That gentleman has af- 
firmed, p. 104 : — 

" Those whom we are accustomed to honor as 
fathers of the church, always preserved with the 
greatest care the catalogue of bishops in the respec- 
tive sees, from the beginning ; and that they have been 
in several instances continued down to our own age, 
may be seen in that celebrated work of the historian 
Mosheim." 

To have sustained his doctrine he should have fur- 
nished his readers with this alleged catalogue entire. 
Instead of this he assumes as truth what he could not 
but know his antagonists deny, and then concludes, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 211 

most illogically, the truth of his hypothesis in favor of 
this disputed theory of succession. This is just as 
fair as if I were to affirm, without proof, that St. Paul 
planted the gospel, in person, in the British islands ; 
ordained bishops, elders, and deacons ; and that from 
this an unbroken line had descended until it had 
reached his grace, the archbishop of Canterbury, from 
whom Bishop White received his consecration ; and 
therefore the American episcopate is truly apostolic in 
its character, " as may be seen in that celebrated work" 
of the late rector of Christ Church, Lexington, Ky., 
G. T. Chapman, D. D., for he has affirmed that such 
a succession has actually existed from the apostles' 
days to the present time ! This the intelligent reader 
will perceive is mere assertion, without a particle of 
proof. 

Now, on turning to the tables of Mosheim, I find 
the following note of the historian, at the commence- 
ment of his catalogue : " The succession of the first 
bishops of Rome is a matter full of intricacy and oZ>- 
scurity. We shall, however, follow the learned Bishop 
Pearson." Following this guide, Mosheim places 
Linus, whom St. Paul mentions in his second epistle 
to Timothy, chap, iv, 21, at the head of the list, and 
as succeeding Paul and Peter. According to this, 
Linus died in the year 79, about forty-six years after 
the crucifixion. Now the question is, From whom 
does the historian derive his information respecting 
this list of bishops ? Undoubtedly from Eusebius. 
Well, what does he say in respect to the catalogue 
which he furnishes ? 

In book iv, chap, v, he says : — 

"We have not ascertained, in any way, that the 
times of the bishops of Jerusalem have been regularly 



212 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

preserved on record, for tradition says that they lived 
but a very short time." In another place, when speak- 
ing on this same subject, he says, " as it is reported." 

This hypothetical manner in which Eusebius speaks 
concerning the vouchers for what he records, doubt- 
less induced Mosheim to say that the subject was in- 
volved in much " intricacy and obscurity." Did such 
obscurity rest upon any other article of faith, considered 
of as much vitality to the Christian system as high- 
toned Episcopalians profess to attach to this, the infidel 
might well reproach us for our credulity. A tenet for 
which neither command nor precedent is to be found 
in all the Bible ; that rests solely on uncertain tradi- 
tion ; that has been contradicted by some of the wisest 
and best men in the purest periods of the church ; 
that was not broached, according to Geiseler, until 
after the reformation commenced ; a tenet of such a 
dubious character surely ought not to be made a term 
of church communion, or a badge of orthodox mem- 
bership. It is not, in the estimation of its advocates, 
one of those exceptions to a general rule, which proves 
the existence of the rule itself; but is, according to 
them, a cardinal point, of perpetual and universal ob- 
ligation ; so much so that there can be no valid minis- 
try nor ordinances without it. 

Yet, even if the list in question were perfect, it 
would prove nothing in favor of their hypothesis, until 
they can show that all these bishops were inducted 
into their respective sees by a triple consecration, the 
first in the line from the hands of the apostles, or from 
some bishops who had themselves been thus conse- 
crated. 

Let it not be forgotten, that this is the question on 
the truth of which the doctrine of succession rests. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 213 

Allowing, therefore, that this catalogue in Mosheim 
is authentic, derived as it is for the first three hundred 
years from the uncertain tradition of Eusebius, it no 
more proves that a third order is essential to consti- 
tute a valid ministry, than it does that the bishops of 
the seven churches of Asia were celestial beings, sent 
down from heaven to preside in the councils of men, 
merely because they are denominated the angels of 
the churches. And that the first bishops in the church 
received this triple consecration is what no man can 
prove ; nor yet that any of the apostles, their assist- 
ants, or immediate successors, were thus inducted into 
their office. But until this is done, the doctrine of 
an unbroken line of diocesan bishops, invested with 
the exclusive right of ordination, must be classed 
among the nudities of antiquity, the deformities of 
which modern sculpturists endeavor in vain to hide 
by throwing over it the tattered robe of an ecclesias- 
tical succession. The closer it is inspected, the more 
glaring do its deformities appear. 

On this subject I beg permission to avail myself 
of the following extract from the biography of Dr. 
Coke, by the late Mr. Samuel Drew, which will pre- 
sent some of the difficulties in which this question is 
involved ; and until the arguments here presented are 
overthrown, we have a right to consider them incon- 
trovertible : — 

" Eusebius, who to us is the first spring of eccle- 
siastical history, after the Acts of the Apostles, tells 
us, in the very beginning of his narrative, that one 
thing he primarily had in his eye, was to give us an 
account of the apostolical succession. But lest we 
should raise our expectations too high, he very fairly 
informs us that this was a new work, where he could 



214 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

trace no footsteps of others going before him, except 
in a few particular narratives. This was honest. 
And if, after this fair warning, we place an implicit 
confidence in the accounts which he gives from the 
reports of others, we have more reason to accuse our- 
selves with being self-deceivers, than to charge him 
with imposition. 

" As to the apostles, he informs us that all the ac- 
counts he can procure, say that they went about the 
world, publishing the Christian faith. He adds, that 
it was reported by his predecessors, that Thomas had 
Parthia ; that Andrew had Scythia ; that John had 
Asia ; that it was likely that Peter preached to the 
Jews dispersed in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, and Cap- 
padocia ; and that Paul preached from Jerusalem 
round about unto Illyricum. This account is certainly 
very far from being satisfactory. He does not even 
pretend to tell us where they preached, nor even to 
know the methods which they adopted to settle the 
various churches which they planted. Bishop Stil- 
lingfleet assigns some weighty reasons to induce a be- 
lief that their actions, in these respects, were far from 
being uniform, but that they varied their methods ac- 
cording to the manners and circumstances of the peo- 
ple to whom they preached. What room, then, was 
there for the triumphant contempt which was poured 
upon Mr. Wesley and Dr. Coke, respecting the ordi- 
nation of the latter by the former, when, according to 
Eusebius, our only guide, we know scarcely any thing 
more concerning the travels and manners of the apos- 
tles themselves, than we gather from the sacred records. 

" But for this deficiency, it may perhaps be expected 
that the historian will make an ample compensation, 
when he proceeds to give us an account of their im- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 215 

mediate successors and followers. But in this instance 
also, as well as in many others, disappointment travels 
in the rear of hope, and even damps our expectation 
by its shadow. * Who they were,' says Eusebius, 
< that, imitating these apostles, (meaning Peter and 
Paul,) were by them thought worthy to govern the 
churches which they planted, is no easy thing to tell, 
excepting such as may be collected from St. Paul's 
own words.' [Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. iii, c. 4.] 

" On this remarkable passage Bishop Stillingfleet 
makes the following observations : — £ If the successors 
of the apostles, by the confession of Eusebius, are not 
certainly to be discovered, then what becomes of that 
unquestionable line of succession of the bishops of 
several churches, and the large diagrams made of the 
apostolical churches, with every one's name set down 
in his order, as if the writer had been Clarencieux to 
the apostles themselves ? Are all the great outcries 
of apostolical tradition, of personal succession, of un- 
questionable records, resolved at last into the Scripture 
itself, by him from whom all these long pedigrees are 
fetched ? Then let succession know its place ; and 
learn to veil bonnet to the Scriptures; and, withal, 
let men take heed of over-reaching themselves, when 
they would bring down so large a catalogue of single 
bishops, from the first and purest times of the church, 
for it will be hard for others to believe them, when 
Eusebius professeth it is so hard to find them.' [Stil- 
lingfleet's Irenic, p. 297.] 

f 1 Would it not,' says Calamy, 6 tempt a man to 
wonder, after all this, to find such a stir made about 
the tables of succession in the several churches from 
the time of the apostles, as a proof that diocesan epis 
copacy had its rise from them ? Alas ! the head of 



216 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



the Nile is not more obscure than the first part of 
these tables.' [Calamy, vol. i, p. 162.] 

" < To show,' the same author adds, in another place, 
6 how little ground there is to depend upon them in the 
present case, I will give a brief view from the repre- 
sentation of the ancients, of the strange confusion of 
the first part of the tables of the three most celebrated 
churches of Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome. 

" The church of xllexandria has been generally 
represented as founded by St. Mark ; and yet Euse- 
bius speaks of it but as an uncertain report. ' They 
say it was so,' but he does not tell us who said so, 
nor upon what grounds, However, upon this slender 
authority of < they say so, 1 many others after him have 
ventured to affirm it as an indisputable fact, that St 
Mark was actually the founder of this church. How- 
ever, even in this there is no perfect agreement. Some 
contend that he was there with St. Peter ; others that 
he was there alone, being sent by St. Peter ; others 
that he was there only once ; and others that he re- 
turned again after his first visit. As to the time of 
his arrival, the period of his ministry, and the year in 
which this church was first founded, all its records 
are totally silent ; and the famous Clement, from 
whom we might expect some information, throws not 
a single ray of light upon this subject. 

" But even supposing St. Mark, under all these 
disadvantages, to have been seated in this church, on 
his throne of polished ivory, as the fabulous legends 
report, and that he wrote his gospel in it, the difficul- 
ties will increase when we proceed to his successors. 
His immediate follower on < the throne of ivory' has 
several names given to him, and as to those who 
come after, the representations and accounts are too 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 217 

various and conflicting to be credited as records of a 
fact. 

" The line of succession which proceeds from An- 
tioch is involved in equal, if not still greater difficulties 
than that of Alexandria. Eusebius, St. Chrysostom, 
St. Jerome, Pope Leo, Innocent, Gelasius, and Gre- 
gory the Great, all tell us that this church was founded 
by St. Peter. But we learn from superior authority, 
that 6 they which were scattered abroad upon the per- 
secution of Stephen, travelled as far as Antioch, preach- 
ing the word to the Jews only,' Acts xi, 19. This 
seems to have been the occasion of introducing 
Christianity at Antioch. After this, as the converts 
needed some one to confirm them in the faith which 
they had newly embraced, the church at Jerusalem 
sent forth Barnabas, not Peter, that he should go as 
far as Antioch. And when Barnabas found that he 
needed some farther assistance, instead of applying to 
Peter, he ' departed to Tarsus to seek Saul ; and when 
he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And 
it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled 
themselves with the church, and taught much people. 
And the disciples were called Christians first at Anti- 
och,' Acts xi, 25, 26. In all these transactions we 
have not one word about Peter ; but on the contrary, 
the intimations appear strongly in favor of Paul, as 
the first founder of the church in this place. 

" We read indeed in another place that St. Peter 
was at Antioch, but the circumstance is not mentioned 
to his honor. For St. Paul, observing the offence he 
had given by his dissimulation, withstood him to the 
face, which we can hardly suppose he would have 
done, if Peter had been the founder of the church, 
and if he now stood at the head of his own diocese. 

10 



218 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

" Baronius, indeed, aware of these difficulties, m 
very willing that St. Peter should resign his bishopric 
at Antioch, upon condition that St. Paul, acting as his 
vicar, be allowed to have erected one there by his 
authority. But even this will not do ; neither can 
the supposition be reconciled with the positive decla- 
rations of those who assert that he was a long time 
bishop there, 

" If we turn from the apostles to their successors 
in this church, we shall find ourselves equally desti- 
tute of firm footing. Baronius assures us that the 
apostles left two bishops behind them in this place, 
one for the Jews, and the other for the Gentiles. 
These were Ignatius and Euodius. Eusebius says, 
expressly, that Euodius was the first bishop of Antioch, 
and that Ignatius succeeded him. But, on the con- 
trary, St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, and the author of 
the Constitutions declare, with equal assurance, that 
St. Peter and St. Paul both laid their hands on Igna- 
tius ; but, unfortunately, it appears that St. Peter was 
dead before Ignatius was bishop in this place. 

" The settlement of the Church of Rome, and its 
much extolled apostolical succession of bishops, is in- 
volved, if possible, in still greater perplexity, confusion, 
and disorder. According to some, this church was 
founded by St. Peter ; others say it was by St. Paul ; 
some introduce both ; and others assert it was neither. 
Of this latter opinion were the learned Salmasius and 
others. But let us allow that St. Peter actually was 
at Rome, of what advantage will this be to the suc- 
cession of bishops ? If Peter was there, it is equally 
certain that St. Paul was there also ; and under these 
circumstances it will be hard to determine who was 
bishop. St. Paul was there first, and on this account 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



219 



fee is preferred by many of the ancients to St. Peter ; 
and in the seal of that church the former is placed on 
the right hand, and the latter on the left. But still 
this does not determine who was bishop. To accom- 
modate this business they have agreed to make them 
both bishops ; and this unhappily destroys the unity 
of the episcopate, by placing two supremes at the 
same time in the same church. 

" But whatever uncertainty may accompany the 
question as to the first bishop, those who succeeded 
him are known with even less assurance. On this 
point the ancients and the moderns are strongly divided. 
Some will have Cletus expunged out of the table, as 
being the same with Anacletus ; and thus fixing Linus 
at the head of the succession, cause him to be followed 
by Anacletus and Clemens. In this manner Ireneus 
represents the case. Others will have Cletus and 
Anacletus to be both retained as distinct bishops, hav- 
ing Linus standing between them. At the same time, 
in some of the ancient catalogues, Anacletus is ex- 
cluded ; and, what is remarkable, he is not to be found 
at this day in the canons of the mass. And yet, in 
the Roman Martyrology, both Cletus and Anacletus 
are distinctly mentioned, and a different account is 
given of the birth, pontificate, and martyrdom of each. 

" In the catalogue of Epiphanius the early bishops 
of Rome are placed in the following orders : Peter 
and Paul, Linus, Cletus, Clemens, and Euaristus. But 
in the catalogue of Bucher they stand according to the 
following arrangement : Linus, Cletus, Clemens, and 
Euaristus ; and three names are entirely omitted ; 
namely, Anicetus, Eleutherius, and Zephyrinus. And 
what shall we do with the famous Clement ? Does 
he style himself bishop of Rome ? Or how came he 
to forget his title ? 



220 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

" It has been said by some that after he had been 
St. Paul's companion, and was chosen by Peter to be 
bishop of Rome, he gave place to Linus. But others 
assert, with equal confidence, and perhaps with equal 
authority, that Linus and Clemens, and others that 
Linus and Cletus, were bishops at the same time. 
Tertullian, Ruffinus, and some others, place Clement 
next to St. Peter ; but Ireneus and Eusebius set Ana- 
cletus before him ; and Optatus makes both Anacletus 
and Cletus to precede him. And, finally, as though 
these strenuous defenders of apostolical succession 
were destined to render it ridiculous by the various 
methods they have adopted to defend this tender string, 
Austin, Damasus, and others, will not allow him to 
grace the list, until the names of Anacletus, Cletus y 
and Linus, have appeared. Such is the foundation 
of apostolical succession in the Church of Rome ! 
Surely it can be no breach of charity to assert that, — - 

4 The bold impostor 
Looks not more silly when the cheat's found out.' 

" It was not, therefore, without reason that Bishop 
Stillingfleet observed, ' The succession here is as 
muddy as the Tiber itself ; and if the line fails us 
here, we have little cause to pin our faith upon it, as 
to the certainty of any particular form of church go- 
vernment, which can be drawn from the help of the 
records of the primitive church.' [Irenicum, p. 312.] 
It cannot, therefore, but be evident to every unpreju- 
diced mind, that, since such confusion and disorder 
appear in the front of these tables of succession, where 
we might most naturally expect the greatest regularity 
and certainty, no dependance can be placed on their 
authority." 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



221 



NUMBER XVII. 

Origin of the usurpation — That it was such, proved from Mo- 
sheim — Its demoralizing effects — Examples of the bishops of Rome 
and Constantinople, of Alexandria and Antioch — Mutual anathe- 
mas and excommunications — War and bloodshed — The boasted 
succession a fable — Hence the validity of ordination cannot depend 
upon it — Pope Joan — Death to the doctrine of succession — It is 
worse than a mere fable, and therefore should be repudiated. 

It has been affirmed by high Episcopalians that 
those denominated bishops in the second and third 
centuries and onward were the immediate successors 
of the apostles ; and that modesty induced them to 
take this title rather than to keep up the appellation 
of apostleSc But is this the fact ? I think not. 

We have already seen that the apostles and their 
immediate successors were itinerating ministers, exer- 
cising an extensive jurisdiction over presbyters, dea- 
cons, and people ; and that they, in common with the 
presbyters, exercised, according to their discretion, the 
right of conferring orders upon others. On the in- 
crease of the church in number, wealth, and influence, 
this mode of life was gradually laid aside ; and with 
it the power of jurisdiction was claimed and exercised 
by the bishops, not from modesty, but from pride — . 
to whom the power of ordination always belonged, 
and in the manner I have described in the xiii, xiv, 
and xv numbers, they enlarged their jurisdiction, 
pleading as a precedent, though improperly, the exam- 
ple of the apostles and itinerating evangelists ; and by 
supplying their own lack of service, after luxury had 
eaten out their spirituality, with the labors of rural 
or suffragan bishops ; and, finally, after popery had 
erected its ebon throne in the temple of God, by the 
agency of nuncios, legates, &c, 



222 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

This was the origin of these episcopal claims, and 
especially the claim of exclusive ordination. 

And I have said that the assertion of this exclusive 
right was a usurpation which did not originally be- 
long to them ; that, therefore it proved a curse to the 
church ; that God has frowned upon it, and exercises 
the awful prerogative of dashing it to pieces, when- 
ever it stands in his way of working. 

These assertions I shall now attempt to sustain. 

1. That it was a usurpation, is demonstrated from 
the testimonies already adduced in support of the pro- 
position that,— 

To the presbyters originally belonged the right of 
consecrating others. 

Let our antagonists try their strength here first. 
If they can disprove this fact by countervailing testi- 
mony, more strong and explicit, they will have invali- 
dated one main argument in support of the assertion 
that the claim of an exclusive right of ordination in a 
third order, made such by a triple consecration, was 
a daring usurpation. 

While giving them time to hunt up these proofs, I 
will ' offer the following as corroborative of this asser- 
tion. Mosheim is quoted as authority by Dr. Chap- 
man in support of his theory. And that the bishops 
usurped powers which did not belong to them, after 
their jurisdiction was enlarged in the manner before 
described, immediately after the empire became nomi- 
nally Christian, is proved from the testimony of this 
accurate historian, in the following language. Speak- 
ing of these haughty prelates, Mosheim says : — 

" Their first step was an entire exclusion of the 
people from all part in the administration of ecclesias- 
tical affairs ; and, afterward, they by degrees divested 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



223 



even the presbyters of their ancient privileges and 
their primitive authority, that they might have no im- 
portunate protesters to control their ambition, or 
oppose their proceedings, and principally, that they 
might either engross to themselves, or distribute as 
they thought proper, the possessions and revenues of 
the church. Hence it came to pass, that, at the con- 
clusion of this century, there remained no more than 
a mere shadow of the ancient government of the 
church. Many of the privileges which had formerly 
belonged to the presbyters and people, were usurped 
by the bishops." [Cent, iv, part ii.j 

Among the ancient privileges of the presbyters 
thus usurped by the bishops, one doubtless was re- 
fusing to them the right which they originally pos- 
sessed, of conferring orders upon others. For although, 
in many instances, for the sake of peace they volun- 
tarily resigned it to a superior minister, they never 
supposed that it would be absolutely claimed as a 
right, as they afterward found it was, at the expense 
of many other privileges. 

2. That this usurpation proved a curse to the 
church, "I will now endeavor to prove. 

It must be admitted as beyond all controversy, that 
this usurpation was founded in pride, that it naturally 
led to a lordly , superiority in the bishops in the exer- 
cise of their assumed powers over their brethren. 
And this lordly disposition began to manifest itself 
first, and most conspicuously, in the bishop of Rome, 
who " surpassed," says the historian just quoted, " all 
his- brethren in the magnificence and splendor of the 
church over which he presided, in the riches of his 
revenues and possessions, in the number and variety 
of his ministers, in his credit among the people, arid 



224 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

in his sumptuous and splendid manner of living." 
Hence, in this century, M Rome became a most 
seducing object of sacerdotal ambition.' 7 " The in- 
trigues and disturbances that prevailed in that city in 
the year 366, when, upon the death of Liberius, 
another pontiff was to be chosen in his place, are a 
sufficient proof of what we have now advanced. 
Upon this occasion, one faction elected Damasus to 
that high dignity, while the opposite party chose 
Uricinus, a deacon* of the vacant church, to succeed 
Liberius. This double election gave rise to a dan- 
gerous schism, and to a sort of civil war within the 
city of Rome, which was carried on with the utmost 
barbarity and fury, and produced the most cruel mas- 
sacres and desolations y 

Here we behold one of the sad effects of this 
usurpation. Having nearly annihilated the power 
and privileges of the presbyters, the bishopric be- 
came such an object of ambition that, as early as the 
year 366, in order to secure it, the imperial city, the 
very seat of the apostolical succession — the very 
fountain whence the Protestant Episcopalians trace 
their impure stream of succession — was polluted with 
the blood of citizens who were most cruelly mas- 
sacred,. 

These were some of the first fruits of those 
assumed powers. Do we want any farther proof 

* This fact, that a deacon was chosen to the office of a 
hishop, is a proof that they did not then consider it essential 
that there should be a third order in the ministry to secure the 
validity of consecration ; for here was a man chosen from the 
rank of the deacons to the episcopacy. And though ousted by 
his rival, we have no account that this circumstance was urged 
against him. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 225 

that the usurpation was a curse to the church ? How 
would St. Peter, who was commanded to feed the 
sheep and lambs, have wept had he been present to 
have witnessed the transformation of these professed 
shepherds of Christ's flock into such ravening wolves^ 
becoming, as they did, in order to satiate their ambi- 
tion, the literal murderers of the people committed 
to their charge ! 

Here then, I say again, is the fruit of this usurped 
apostolic succession. Having once thrown off the 
proper character of Christ's shepherds, as simple 
presbyters or primitive bishops, they destroyed instead 
of saved the souls for whom Christ died ! 

Let Dr. Chapman and his admirers, who pour forth 
their pious sarcasms upon John Wesley, the founder 
of Methodist episcopacy, look at those founders of 
their succession, and then decide who has the greatest 
reason to blush at the recollection of their patriarchs, 
or first fathers. 

It is unnecessary, I apprehend, to go on to parti- 
cularize the subsequent acts of mutual jealousy, bar- 
barity, and cruelty which distinguished and disgraced 
the conduct of the rival bishops from time to time. 
Let the reader who wishes for particular information 
of this sort, take up Mosheim, and cast his eye along 
the famous catalogue of bishops in the chronological 
tables affixed to his history, and then turn to the 
pages referred to in the history itself, and he w T ill 
soon find enough to convince him of the truth of the 
remark, that this unholy usurpation of exclusive 
power proved a signal curse to the church. Let him 
listen to the mutual recriminations between the lordly 
prelate of Constantinople, who now began to feel the 
high importance of his metropolitan dignity, and the 

10* 



226 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

no less haughty pontiff of Rome, who felt himself 
wounded by the ambitious pretensions of his rival ; 
let him lend his ear to the thundering anathemas of 
Cyril, the imperious bishop of Alexandria, against 
Nestorius, and the no less violent accusations of the 
latter against his haughty antagonist, exasperating the 
spirits of each other by reciprocal excommunications, 
merely because they disagreed concerning the appel- 
lation which should be given to the holy virgin ; 
and then behold this same Cyril, with the relentless- 
ness of a tiger, pursuing John, the less obstinate 
bishop of Antioch, which took place early in the 
fifth century ; and he will have seen and heard 
enough to make him suspect that these apostolic 
successors profited but little from their assumed 
powers, and that the church, instead of deriving a 
benefit from the usurpation — for such I must con- 
tinue to call it in order to give it its right name — 
groaned under one of its most tremendous curses. 
The people were torn to pieces with endless dis- 
putes — the presbyters and other inferior ministers 
were proportionably corrupted — while pure religion 
was suffocated with the dense smoke raised by the 
fury of the rival combatants. 

Passing over other minor squabbles for superiority 
among these lordly usurpers over the rights, privi- 
leges, and liberties of the people and inferior clergy, 
let us just glance at that famous division of the church 
which took place through the haughty rivalry and 
bitter recriminations between the bishops of Rome and 
Constantinople. Without detaining the reader with a 
detailed account of the causes which led to the fatal 
rupture which took place between these two haughty 
prelates, I will just remark that Felix II. , bishop of 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 227 

Rome, first hurled at Acasius, bishop of Constantinople, 
the bull of excommunication, and that in retaliation, 
Acasius threw his antagonist over the walls of tne 
church. The war thus kindled, continued its ravages 
with destructive fury, through all ranks of the church, 
until almost every vestige of pure religion was 
consumed. 

These examples of clerical ambition and eccle- 
siastical malversation, are quoted not to prove that the 
ordinations practised in modern episcopal churches 
are vicious ; but to sustain my position that in thus 
departing from the original church of Christ, in 
establishing this usurpation, a heavy curse was in- 
flicted upon the church, and upon the world. What 
have I to do in judging of the validity of their conse- 
cration ? It is this fabled succession — this unrighte- 
ous usurpation — so soon becoming a fruitful source 
of moral and spiritual pollution — that I condemn. 
But if they substitute a secular for a spiritual head, 
and introduce numberless ceremonies and usages un- 
known to the primitive church, I have a right to quote 
these things as evidences of their departure in practice 
from the original church of Christ. These things 
were never referred to by me to invalidate their 
ordination. My arguments have not been directed 
against the validity of their orders, but in defence of 
our own. And a man who has attentively read my 
articles and has not perceived this, may deserve pity, 
but certainly is unworthy of any other feeling, much 
less of additional argument to enlighten him, for I 
should as soon expect the Ethiopian to change the 
color of his skin, as to beat an idea into the brains 
of such a man. 

If indeed the validity of ordination depended on the 



228 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

truth of this doctrine of succession, then I should say 
that it is doubtful whether there be a validly con- 
stituted ministry in the universe. It must therefore 
depend upon something else, or we are all swept by 
the board, and the Christian priesthood has been long 
since drowned in the depth of the turbulent ocean of 
doubt and uncertainty. 

So far, then, as our antagonists rest the validity of 
their orders upon succession, so far they rest it upon 
a sandy foundation; and of course, if this be their 
only plea in its favor, I will then venture to affirm that 
it has no foundation at all. This I shall attempt more 
fully to demonstrate in another number. 

In the meantime, I will refer to one more histo- 
rical fact, to show the rottenness of the foundation 
on which this doctrine of succession rests. In 
the ninth century, "between the pontificate of Leo 
IV., who died in 855, and that of Benedict III., 5 ' 
such were the shameful intrigues by which rival 
candidates contended for the prize of the popedom, 
that " a certain woman who had art to disguise her 
sex for a considerable time, is said, by learning, genius, 
and dexterity, to have made good her way to the papal 
chair, and to have governed the church with the title 
and dignity of pontiff for about two years.""* I am 
aware that the truth of this narrative has been called 
in question. But Mosheim, whom Dr. Chapman 
quotes in favor of his ecclesiastical genealogy with 
high approbation, says, that " during the five succeed- 
ing centuries, it was generally believed, and a vast 
number of writers bore testimony to its truth ; nor, 

* See Mosheim. Others relate that she was detected by 
exposing the fruit of her illicit connection in a public pro- 
cession. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 229 

before the reformation undertaken by Luther, was it 
considered by any, either as incredible in itself, or as 
ignominious to the church," And if being in such a 
corrupt succession, and receiving episcopal consecra- 
tion, constitute a subject a canonical bishop, I see no 
reason why Pope Joan may not be considered as good 
a pope as any of them. 

This indeed must be allowed by Dr. Chapman and 
his converts, or they must at once and for ever abandon 
the doctrine of an unbroken succession. Let them 
take their choice. Either allow that an intriguing 
prostitute was a canonical bishop, merely because she 
was artful enough to mount the throne of the popedom, 
and obtain the blessing of the succession, or acknow- 
ledge that this line was snapped asunder by the hands 
of an artful woman. I think a man who will deliber- 
ately place himself on either horn of such a dilemma, 
exposes himself to the just ridicule of all men of sense, 
and to the commiseration of all women of piety. 

Perhaps they will say that they are not indebted 
to this impure stream for their rivulet of succession, 
But hold, gentlemen : you are. On your own con- 
cession, you are. Dr. Chapman has referred his 
readers to this very table found in Mosheim,"** and 
this traces the line from Rome, through Pope Joan, 
to the archbishop of Canterbury, from whom Bishop 
White received his consecration. And there is no 
other given. There is no succession traced, not even 
in pretence, from either Jerusalem, Alexandria, Anti- 
och, or Carthage. If ever there were any such tables, 
true or false, they are lost — totally and irrecoverably 

* It may be remarked that Mosheim himself introduced this 
account by saying that this event " is said to have interrupted 
the much-vaunted succession in the see of Rome." 



230 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



lost. Here then is your only fountain, your only 
stream ; and that this has been abominably polluted, 
and remains so, contaminated beyond the power of 
language to describe, by the bloody waters of strife 
and war, and the muddy streams of moral pollution, is 
put beyond all dispute.* 

And more than all, in the instance referred to, the 
stream became so turbid, that it actually ceased to 
flow. So sensible were the Romish successionists 
of the truth of this, that when Luther commenced his 
reformation, and, to defend himself against the rude 
assaults of his adversaries, plunged them headlong 
into this now turbid and polluted stream ; their friends, 

* The reader will bear in mind that though the Roman 
Catholics acknowledge seven orders, yet there are but three 
which are considered sacred, namely, deacon, priest, and bishop ; 
the other four are petty or secular, and are called doorkeeper, 
exorcist, reader, and acolyth. Whenever, therefore, an eccle- 
siastic is elected a pope, he is not considered as being of another 
order in the ministry. Hence he is not consecrated in the 
manner of a bishop, but crowned as a king. As to order, 
therefore, he answers to the order of the bishops in the English 
and Protestant Episcopal Churches, being the first bishop in the 
Romish Church, with supreme jurisdictional powers over the 
whole Catholic world. 

From this it follows that the line of succession must run 
through the popes, who are considered by the Roman Catholics 
as the centre of all ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction, and 
without whose concurrence no ordination is valid. Hence a 
vacancy in this line, completely breaks the chain of succession, 
and renders it void. 

In the early days of Christianity all the bishops were com- 
monly called Raira, which signifies simply father, by way of 
honoring them as the first builders of the church ; but after the 
bishop of Rome had usurped the supremacy, he alone was 
honored with that appellation, to distinguish him from all others, 
as the f ather of the faithful — the pope, by most Protestants as 
a term of reproach. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 231 

in order to extricate them, went to work to open the 
channel, and to cleanse the fountain. Though Pope 
Joan had lain quietly interred for five centuries, as 
having been an undisputed pontiff, filling the direct line 
of succession, she was now most inhumanly dis- 
interred, and her identity called in question ! This 
was cruel. But what can the upholders of error do, 
when so hard pressed by the advocates of truth ? 
Luther was excommunicated, while Pope Joan had 
been long canonized ! John Wesley was a schis- 
matic, while the she pope had been recognized as a 
connecting link in the imperishable chain of apostolic 
succession ! 

Now will any man in his sober senses say, that 
the validity of his credentials as a minister of Jesus 
Christ depends upon such a succession ? That from 
its having descended to him through such a bastardly 
lineage he is therefore legitimately born ? Let him 
say it who wishes. For my part, I cannot help be- 
lieving that this doctrine of succession is worse than 
a mere " fable." Until I began recently to examine 
it more thoroughly than I had done heretofore, I had 
no conception of the rottenness of the foundation on 
which it rests, nor of the pernicious consequences 
resulting from placing dependence upon it. It seems 
indeed like a quagmire, the farther you enter it, the 
more it shakes and trembles around you, and the more 
difficult it becomes to extricate yourself from it. 
Every step you take sinks you deeper and deeper in 
the mud. 

• But as I have ventured upon its deceitful surface, 
for the purpose merely of ascertaining its strength, 
justice requires that I should survey its length and 
breadth, and endeavor to sound its depth. In my next, 



232 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

therefore, I shall attempt an examination of some 
farther arguments by which its advocates endeavor its 
support, in connection with the question whether con- 
secration makes a man a minister for life, be his 
actions what they may. 



NUMBER XVIII. 

Consequences of the doctrine of succession— Said to be the es- 
sential thing — Righteousness will not qualify, nor wickedness dis- 
qualify a man who is in the succession — A denial of this breaks 
the chain — Proved by sundry arguments — The line broken by 
Pope Joan — By Octavian — By the election of two bishops at the 
same time — Consecration converted into a sacrament — The line 
broken to fragments. 

In my last I endeavored to show the polluted 
channel through which this stream of succession has 
flowed. It would be an easy matter to follow its 
turbid waters down to the memorable era of the re- 
formation, and to demonstrate that, instead of its be- 
coming purer by age, it continued to accumulate 
more and more of its impurities, until its stench be- 
came so offensive to some men of more refined taste, 
that they determined no longer to drink of its muddy 
waters. 

Some, however, may be disposed to cavil at the 
assertion in my former number, that the line of suc- 
cession has descended to the English Church through 
the Church of Rome, down through Pope Joan and 
others, inasmuch as the English archbishops trace 
their origin to Augustine in the 6th century. In 
reply, I would remark, that Augustine was nominated 
to his office by Gregory, the bishop of Rome, in 597, 
and that as the popes are considered the centre of all 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 233 

ecclesiastical power, without whose concurrence no 
episcopal ordination is valid, the archbishops of Can- 
terbury must be considered, notwithstanding, as de- 
riving all their authority from Rome, to whose power 
and jurisdiction they always professed subjection, 
until the time of the reformation. The pretended 
succession, therefore, of the English Church, is one 
of the many rivulets, all of which have flowed from 
the same fountain, namely, the see of Rome. 

Let us therefore examine a little farther into this 
doctrine of succession. We have already seen on 
what a sandy foundation it rests. Let us now look 
at some of the consequences to which it inevitably 
leads. " The tree is known by its fruits." And 
when we cannot assert positively, a priori, in respect 
to the truth or falsity of a doctrine, we may reason a 
posteriori, from effects to cause, in order to ascer- 
tain its character. In the present instance, how- 
ever, our position is sustained by both these methods 
of argumentation. To the latter I will now more 
particularly address myself. 

According to the opinion of those who advocate 
its claims, it is the essential thing to a valid Christian 
ministry. 

Whatever qualifications a man may possess- 
though he may be as holy and as wise as Wesley, as 
Cranmer, as Luther, as Calvin, or even St. Paul 
himself — and as evidently designated of God as his 
chosen instrument to bear his name to a lost world — 
unless he were episcopally ordained by a bishop who 
had received his commission by a triple consecration, 
he is no true minister of Jesus Christ, and of course, 
if he presume to administer the ordinances, he is an 
impostor, or intruder into the fold of Christ ! 



234 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

On the other hand, however wicked, ignorant, and 
abandoned a man is, if he be thus episcopally conse- 
crated, he is a true minister of the sanctuary, the 
ordinances are validly administered, if administered by 
him, and the line of succession is kept unbroken ! 

Do you demur at this monstrosity ? You must not. 
If you do, your line is snapped asunder at once. 
Look at the line of bishops as handed down to us 
through the Church of Rome. And let it be remem- 
bered that this is the channel through which the stream 
of succession has flowed into the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church. If you can find a more wicked, ignorant, 
and base set of human beings, than many of them 
were — perhaps I might say the most of them — then 
may your cheeks cease to redden at the recollection 
of depraved human nature — or at that depraved reason 
of man which would make the validity of the Christian 
ministry and the Christian ordinances to depend on 
such a rotten line as this ! Now I aver that the 
sticklers for this unbroken succession must allow, that 
no act of wickedness, not even adultery and murder, 
disqualifies a man for a bishop, if he be only ordained 
by others who were in the succession. 

The moment you deny this, the chain of succession 
is shivered in a thousand pieces ! And let him weld 
it together who can. 

It is not fitting that the truth of this declaration 
should rest on mere assertion. I regret, indeed, that 
our antagonists compel us to this mode of defence. 
For be it remembered that I act on the defensive. 
Whoever has been in the habit of looking over the 
pages of Protestant Episcopalian writers, from the 
" Churchman's Magazine," down to "the Churchman," 
a weekly paper now published in this city, and to Dr. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 235 

Chapman's Sermons, will find them rife with flippant 
caricatures of our ministry and ordinances. Wesley 
and his coadjutors are branded as schismatics and in- 
terlopers — Methodist episcopacy as an unwarrantable 
assumption of human power — and even now, writers 
are advancing their unsupported dogmas in favor of 
the divine origin of diocesan episcopacy, and de- 
nouncing others as the spurious offspring of schisma- 
tical pride, or as the claim of ignorant fanatics. No 
man, therefore, who duly considers this subject, will 
blame us for attempting to defend ourselves against 
this ceaseless cry, this perpetual ringing the changes, 
of succession ! succession ! as though the salvation of 
the world depended upon the truth and reality of this 
ecclesiastical dogma. 

Let us then see whether, in order to sustain this 
doctrine, its advocates are not obliged to maintain the 
position that neither vice, of any sort, nor ignorance, 
however ineffable, nor pride and ambition, however 
insufferable, disqualifies a man for the office of a 
bishop, provided he be in the line of succession. In 
order to this, let us look at the character and lives of 
some of those apostolic successors. 

We have already seen the bloody carnage oc- 
casioned by the ambitious strife for the pontificate, 
between Felix and Damasus in the 4 th century, and 
also of the bishops of Rome and Constantinople in 
their struggles for dominion. After such preludes as 
these, is it any wonder that we listen to the following 
account of the bishops and clergy, in the beginning 
of the 9th century : — 

" The impiety and licentiousness of the greatest 
part of the clergy arose at this time to an enormous 
height, and stand upon record, in the unanimous com- 



236 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

plaints of the most candid and impartial writers of this 
century. In the east, tumult, discord, conspiracies, 
and treason, reigned uncontrolled, and all things were 
carried by violence and force" " In the western 
provinces, the bishops were become voluptuous and 
effeminate to a very high degree. They passed their 
lives amidst the splendor of courts, and the pleasures 
of a luxurious indolence, which corrupted their 
taste, extinguished their zeal, and rendered them in- 
capable of performing the solemn duties of their 
functions." 

Is this true ? Were they indeed incapable, in 
consequence of their " luxurious indolence," their 
" conspiracies and treasons," and their " licentious- 
ness," of performing the solemn functions of their 
office ? What then became of ordination ? Alas ! 
for the chain of succession, when its links are in- 
crustated with such filth ! Did not the rust of pollu- 
tion quite eat them up at this time? Were those 
men true ministers of Jesus Christ, merely because 
they had received the mitre from the hands of others 
no more pure than themselves ? But let us hear this 
same impartial and accurate historian still farther : — 

" Many other causes," says Mosheim, " also con- 
tributed to dishonor the church, by introducing into it 
a corrupt ministry. A nobleman, who, through want 
of talents," — -mark this ! — " activity, or courage, was 
rendered incapable of appearing with dignity in the 
cabinet, or with honor in the field, immediately turned 
his views toward the church, aimed at a distinguished 
place among its chiefs and rulers, and became, in con- 
sequence, a contagious example of stupidity and vice 
to the inferior clergy." 

In consequence of these and other abominations to 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 237 

which the bishops were addicted, and whose ungodly 
example the inferior clergy followed with a greedy 
facility, the same historian tells us, that — 

" In 884, the election of the bishops of Rome was 
carried on without the least regard to law, order, and 
decency, generally attended with civil tumults and 
dissensions.'' And hence it is affirmed that the 
" greater part of the bishops of this century are only 
known by the flagitious actions that have transmitted 
their names with infamy to our times." See Mosh., 
cent, ix, ch. ii. 

Such a state of things might well prepare for that 
more infamous transaction mentioned in my last 
number, the election and consecration of Pope Joan 
to the bishopric of Rome, which took place in this 
century. And if the mere act of consecration be all 
that is necessary to make a human being a canonical 
bishop, I see not why she might not have transmitted 
this immaculate daughter of the succession as purely 
and as legitimately as Boniface or Leo ! 

But query : — Was Joan ordained first a deacon, 
then a priest, and thirdly a bishop ? Or did she mount 
directly, without ascending the intermediate steps from 
a simple layman — -I beg pardon of her holiness — a 
ZaywoMAN — to the popedom ? As the lattet seems 
the more probable, I think here is a chasm in the line 
of triple consecration, which is not easily filled up. 
Indeed, the fabulous character of this succession in- 
creases upon us most frightfully as we travel down 
the line, or rather wander in the spectral labyrinth, 
while searching for this illustrious personage, whose 
ideal existence perpetually eludes our most eager 
grasp. 

But the crimes of the bishops of Rome in the 9th, are 



238 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

tolerable in comparison to what they were in the 10th 
century. Intrigue, rapine, murder, and licentiousness 
in its most revolting forms, distinguished, disgraced, 
debased, and brutalized their conduct — so much so that 
Mosheim tells us, that the worst tyrants Rome ever 
had, did not equal them in their abominations. And 
if a chasm be not found in the elevation of Joan to the 
papal chair, I think we shall find one in this century 
in the person of Octavian, son of the emperor Aberic II., 
whom his father "raised to the pontificate while in 
the early bloom of youth, ard destitute beside of every 
quality that was requisite in order to discharge the 
duties of that high and important office." Certainly 
this " blooming youth," a mere private citizen, did not 
ascend to his high office through the intermediate 
steps of deacon and priest. Here could have been 
no triple consecration. Will some of our modern 
secessionists supply this lost link ? 

Another difficulty, of no less formidable character, 
presents itself about the middle of the 11th century, 
when the church had to groan under the misrule of 
two bishops, Sylvester and Gregory, at the same 
time ; the one of whom, Gregory, having purchased 
the papal chair of Benedict, who had been twice de- 
posed on account of his horrid crimes, and now, while 
occupying his seat for the third time, and perceiving 
he could hold out no longer against the violent hatred 
of the people, sold his birthright to Gratian, who took 
the name of Gregory VI, and ruled jointly with 
Sylvester. 

From which of these factious bishops will Pro 
Ecclesia and his associates trace their unbroken line 
of succession ? There were in fact, no less than 
three popes at the same time ! For if the doctrine 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 239 

of succession be true, once a bishop always a bishop, 
the mere circumstance of Benedict's deposition on 
account of his horrid crimes, or the fact of his selling 
the mitre to Gregory, does not deprive him of his 
bishopric, Will some one of the advocates of suc- 
cession tell us from which of these successors of the 
apostles they have derived their exclusive authority to 
make bishops, priests, and deacons ? 

But it is needless to multiply examples, as the 
profligacy, venality, and unbounded ambition of the 
bishops of Rome would exceed all belief, did not the 
page of history give us the most authentic accounts 
of their acts and proceedings. 

Now what does the doctrine of succession teach ? 
Why, it teaches that all these men were truly and 
canonically bishops. Does not every body see there- 
fore that their canonicalness depends entirely and ex- 
clusively upon the act of consecration ? The moment 
it is contended that gifts, grace, or any other moral 
or spiritual qualification is necessary, succession is 
given up. But the consequence does not stop here. 

According to this doctrine consecration is exalted 
to a sacrament. It is well known that the Roman 
Catholic Church holds to seven sacraments, among 
which is that of ordination. The Protestants have 
discarded Jive of these, namely, confirmation, penance, 
extreme unction, marriage, and ordination, retaining 
only two, baptism, and the Lord's supper. Now what 
is the meaning of a sacrament ? We know that the 
word is derived from the Latin sacramentum, which 
signifies the oath taken by the Roman soldiers to be 
true to their country. But as good a definition as can 
be given of this word, when used in a religious sense, 
is the following, which is that of the Church of Eng- 



240 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

land, and is adopted by the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in her catechism : — 

" It is an outward and visible sign of an inward 
and spiritual grace, of a death unto sin, and a new 
birth unto righteousness." 

This then constitutes a sacrament ; and though the 
Protestant Episcopalians have in form repudiated 
ordination from the list of their sacraments, yet the 
doctrine of succession, as held and taught by them, 
does most effectually convert it into a sacrament. Let 
us see if this be not so. 

Here are persons famous only for their flagitious 
acts of wickedness, whose stupidity and luxurious 
indolence were such as to render them incapable of 
serving the state while they remained mere lay- 
men, who are no sooner elected and consecrated, 
than they are converted into canonical bishops ; all 
their official acts are valid, and they are competent to 
transmit the line of pontifical succession, in all its 
spirituality, unimpaired, unpolluted, and perfectly 
sound in all its parts, to future generations. Now 
what converted these monsters in human shape into 
apostolical bishops ? I answer, 

THE ACT OF CONSECRATION ALONE ! 

They had nothing else to make them competent— 
except it were their brutal stupidity, ignorance, and 
wickedness ! And yet, such is the magic influence 
of the oil of consecration, that these men are instantly 
metamorphosed into saints ! into legitimate successors 
of the apostles ! Is not therefore consecration a 
sacrament ? Is it not the one thing needful ? It is 
not only an outward and visible sign, but the thing 
signified thereby — apostolic power — is most assuredly 
and infallibly communicated — and so communicated 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 241 



too that it cannot be lost, though the incumbent should 
wallow in all the filth of iniquity all the days of his 
life ! 

Yet more : — This doctrine takes up a single lay- 
man (or perchance a Zczy woman) famous only for his 
stupidity, ignorance, and profanity, and claps the 
mitre upon his head at once, without waiting for the 
slow process of intermediate ordinations, and thus 
makes him an apostolic successor ! Can any other 
sacrament work such miracles ? 

Now let those who can swallow this inexpressible 
monstrosity, tell us what else can perform such a 
wonder. Behold ! ye advocates of succession, your 
chain shivered to pieces — or admit the doctrine, that 
the simple act of consecration, though it be ad- 
ministered by an illegitimate, himself the offspring of 
an illicit connection between a pope and his adulteress,* 
changes the lion into a lamb, and makes him truly a 
depositary of canonical ordination ! Here is your line 
of succession ! Here is your divine right of episco- 
pacy ! Here is the justification of your exclusive 
claims ! or, rather, the refutation of all your arguments 
in their defence ! 

* In the 10th century, after many bloody struggles respect- 
ing who should fill the papal chair, and after one wanton pope 
had been put to death in prison to satisfy the vengeance of the 
daughter whose mother he had seduced, Marozia, the wife of 
the marquis of Tuscany, a powerful prince, seized the oppor- 
tunity to raise John XL, who was the fruit of her lawless amors 
with one of the pretended successors of St. Peter, to the papal 
dignity. This pretended successor of St. Peter was Sergius III., 
" whose adulterous commerce," says the historian, " with that 
infamous woman gave an infallible guide to the Romish Church." 
Mosheim, cent, x, part ii. 

Such facts need no comment, They speak volumes against 
placing any dependence upon this fabled succession. 

11 



242 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST* 

The reader will pardon these exclamation points, 
I know not how otherwise to express my astonish- 
ment, that any man, in his sober senses, should place 
dependence upon such a rotten foundation—that he 
should persist in tracing his origin to such impure 
sources. 

If this monstrous doctrine does not transform 
ordination into a sacrament, to all intents and pur- 
poses, I confess I know not what should be called a 
sacrament. In this particular, therefore, they must go 
back to " mother church," revise their article of faith 
on the sacraments of Christianity, and adopt this of 
ordination as one of them. 

Do any object to these arguments, and say that a 
man must not only be in the line of succession in order 
to be a legitimate bishop, but must also be a good 5 
holy, and talented man ? Allow this, and your chain, 
as I have before said, is broken into a thousand 
fragments. There is therefore no medium between 
allowing that no sort or color of wickedness disquali- 
fies a man for a true spiritual shepherd of Christ's 
flock, and surrendering the doctrine of succession as 
a spectre, which has been conjured up by some 
ghostly fathers of the church, for the purpose of 
frightening " weak and unstable souls." 

I have more yet to say — more absurd consequences 
to deduce from this baseless hypothesis, which I must 
reserve to another number. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



243 



NUMBER XIX. 

Other consequences deducible from this doctrine— Makes a man 
inviolable in his official character— Resorted to at the Reforma- 
tion— Disputed by the Puritans — What consecration does for a 
man — Imparts no qualification, but simply gives a sanction to 
his character, and imparts authority to exercise those gifts he al- 
ready possesses — Confirmed by the practice of all denominations — 
A full statement of the case — Exemplified from analogy — Contrary 
doctrine absurd — The persons which confer authority can take it 
away — Proved from the example of Judas — Opposite doctrine 
sanctions licentiousness — Fearful results of the doctrine to the 
cause of successionists. 

It has been shown in the last number that the doc- 
trine of succession converts a monster in human shape 
into a canonical bishop, and therefore transmutes the 
rite of consecration into a sacrament — such a sacra- 
ment as invariably and uniformly conveys to the in- 
cumbent the divine right of episcopacy. If these 
deductions are legitimate, as I cannot but think they 
are, then it follows that a man, once inducted into 
office in this way, becomes so sacred that no arm can 
touch him with impunity, no vice, however flagitious, 
can contaminate his official character, nor any power 
ever deprive him of his rights, as the visible repre- 
sentative of Christ on earth. This is a corollary 
which inevitably follows from the doctrine of suc- 
cession. 

But is this a true doctrine ? I mean, is it true that 
because a man has once been inducted into office 
canonically, he is therefore a " priest for ever, after 
the order" of the true successors of Jesus Christ ? 
Has he thence become inviolable in his official cha- 
racter ? Can you believe this ? Do you not see 
what a broad license such a monstrous doctrine gives 
to wickedness of every sort ? For a man to adopt 



244 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

this dogma, and then to declaim against the doctrine 
of indulgences, as promulgated by Leo X., is to stig- 
matize Luther and all his coadjutors and successors 
in the glorious work of the Reformation as a set of 
deluded fanatics, who labored against a pious work 
of the holy mother church. Those who purchased 
these indulgences had, nevertheless, to make confes- 
sion and to do penance, in order to be forgiven ; but 
this holy race of bishops, let their crimes have been 
whatever they might, or become whatever they may, 
are exempted from all punishment, free from all cen- 
sure, immaculate in their official dignity, and can 
never be deposed, because the oil of consecration has 
made them the inviolable vicars of Jesus Christ ! 

The truth of this doctrine, which makes one almost 
shudder to think upon, deserves examination. It cer- 
tainly was not the doctrine of the Romish Church 
before the Reformation ; for we have numerous in- 
stances upon record where bishops were deposed, and 
others substituted in their place. It seems, therefore, 
to have been resorted to by some of the English pre- 
lates, especially to refute the calumny, as they con- 
sidered it, heaped upon them by the Church of Rome, 
that, being excommunicated by the pope for rebellion 
and contumacy, they were no longer bishops, and of 
consequence all their official acts were null and void, 
To repel this assault upon their official character, 
they set up the claim that having been once invested 
with ecclesiastical authority, they could never be di- 
vested of it. The doctrine of succession drove them 
to this absurd conclusion. Taking it for granted that 
they could have no valid authority as bishops, but by 
deriving it by regular descent through the line of suc- 
cession ; unless they could make good their creden- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



245 



tiais on this principle, they concluded that the fabric 
they were erecting on the ruins of the papal hierarchy 
must necessarily fall to the ground. Hence this plea, 
" Once a bishop, always a bishop.''' 

It seems, however, that this point was powerfully 
debated even among themselves. For w r hile a por- 
tion of the English prelates contended for this doc- 
trine, others of them repelled the assaults of their 
adversaries by resorting to the very arguments we 
now use to justify ourselves against the objections 
of high churchmen. These were the Puritans, and 
those especially who borrowed their ideas of church 
order and government from Calvin and other conti- 
nental reformers, — concerning whose opinions on this 
subject, as they have not, as I think, been fairly repre- 
sented by Dr. Chapman, I shall show my views in a 
future number. 

Let us look at this doctrine for a few moments, in 
the light of Scripture and "common sense. And that 
we may see it fairly, let us inquire, in the first place, 
what ordination is— what it does for a man. Accord- 
ing to the doctrine of succession it is the sine qua 
non, the very thing requisite to constitute a man a 
minister of Jesus Christ. But the monstrous absur- 
dities which flow from this opinion are sufficient 
of themselves, one would think, to set it aside among 
all impartial inquirers after truth. 

Consecration, it appears to me, is so far from im- 
parting the qualifications of a minister, that it neces- 
sarily presupposes these qualifications, in the subject 
on. whom the ceremony is performed. It strikes me 
most forcibly, that whatever may be the theory of 
some men on this subject, the practice of all de- 
nominations, with respect to the method adopted in 



246 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



receiving ministers at the altar, is founded on the 
presumption that certain qualifications are essential 
before consecration, to make a man a true minister 
of Jesus Christ ; and on the supposition that these 
qualifications are wanting — suppose the candidate has 
deceived his examiners and ordainers, by imposing 
upon their goodness or credulity, his ordination would 
be thereby rendered null and void."* I say the prac- 
tice of the several denominations seems to confirm 
this view — -and yet it is certain that the doctrine of 
succession contradicts it. 

What is the practice to which allusion is made ? 
Do they not all examine the candidate in respect to 
his call, his qualifications, &c. ? Of what is this ex- 

* In a legal point of view — understanding the word legal in 
a civil sense — whatever is done by a minister acknowledged 
such by the religious community to which he belongs, is con- 
sidered valid. In our country, especially, where the constitu- 
tion and laws have nothing more to do with religious institu- 
tions than simply to protect each denomination in its rights and 
privileges, whoever is recognized as a minister by the commu- 
nity from which he receives his authority to preach and ad- 
minister the sacraments, the law acknowledges and sanctions, 
as valid, whatever the minister performs by virtue of his office. 
Hence marriages and baptisms, duly performed by a minister 
recognized as such by the denomination to which he belongs, 
and registered as the law directs, are considered valid, and the 
certificates and registers are received as competent testimony 
in the case. 

But in those countries which require all ecclesiastical offi- 
cers to be created as the civil law directs, the minister him- 
self must of course be inducted into office in conformity to 
the civil regulations, in order to render his official acts valid. 
Until within a few years, some of the states of America 
declared marriages by certain ministers not recognized as 
such by their civil code, invalid. Thank God a better state 
of things now prevails throughout all our borders. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 247 



amination predicated ? Is it not that the candidate must 
possess certain qualifications, and even be "moved by 
the Holy Ghost to take upon him that office," before he 
can be admitted to holy orders ? Most certainly all this is 
implied. Nay, this inward call by the Holy Ghost, and 
certain mental and spiritual qualifications, are consider- 
ed as essential prerequisites— so essential that if the 
person presenting himself as a candidate for the Chris- 
tian ministry be judged destitute of them, his application 
is rejected. The whole procedure, therefore, of exami- 
nation and ordination, is predicated of the supposition 
that the person applying for holy orders has been 
already called of God to take upon him that office, and 
that he how possesses the requisite qualifications. If 
you were to examine the formularies of the Protestant 
Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, or the Methodists, 
or even the Roman Catholics, you would find them 
all recognizing this principle in their interrogatories to 
the candidate, as well as in the forms of consecration : 
— " Do you think you are moved by the Holy Ghost 
to take upon you this office V* is the substance of what 
is asked by them all, after the candidate has satisfied 
them in his previous examination that he possesses 
the requisite qualifications. 

What, then, it must be asked, does consecration do 
for the person thus called and qualified ? Does it 
impart any new gift ? The words of consecration 
used in setting apart an elder 9 are as follows : — "The 
Lord pour upon thee the Holy Ghost for the office 
and work of an elder in the church of God, now 
committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands." 
That which is professed to be committed unto the 
person thus consecrated, is the office and work of an 
elder in the church of God, to which he had, as was 



248 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST* 

believed by all concerned in this solemn transaction, 
been already called, and for which he is supposed to 
be fully qualified ; and the prayer is, that the Lord 
may pour upon him the Holy Ghost, to fit him more 
perfectly for and to sustain him in his holy work. Here, 
therefore, is no new gift imparted, except so far as he 
is, by this public recognition of his character and 
official sanction of his professed call to the work of an 
elder in the church of God, authorized to exercise his 
gifts in that branch of the church of Christ. The 
prayer of consecration for a bishop is somewhat dif- 
ferent. " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and 
work of a bishop in the church of God, now com- 
mitted unto thee by the imposition of our hands 7 ' — but 
it amounts to about the same in substance ; for in 
neither is it supposed that the imposition of hands 
confers any new powders, but simply affirms that the 
candidate hereby receives authority to exercise his 
office in that peculiar way indicated in the ordination 
service, and contained in his credentials. In both cases 
the Holy Ghost is invoked as essential for the due 
performance " of the office and work" whereunto they 
are called, and to which they have been thus solemnly 
consecrated. The grand question therefore still re- 
mains to be answered, — 

What does the act of consecration do for the man 
on whom it is performed ? 

The only answer which seems any w r ay satisfactory 
is, that the act of consecration imparts authority to the 
incumbent to exercise those gifts which it is taken for 
granted he already possesses, in that particular branch 
of the church of Christ in which he thinks himself 
called to labor as a gospel minister. 

A man may be qualified to labor in any depart- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 249 

merit of usefulness, as a mechanic, as a lawyer, or as 
a physician ; but this does not entitle him to employ 
himself in any particular place, until he is authorized 
so to do by those to whom the place belongs, or over 
which they have control. So a man thinks himself 
called of God to preach the gospel. He examines 
the various modifications of Christianity as held and 
exemplified by the several denominations of Chris- 
tians, and their methods of propagating them. Having 
made up his mind in regard to the truth and expe- 
diency of these, he presents himself to the denomina- 
tion with which he thinks he can the most cordially 
unite. Here the proper officers of the church ex- 
amine him in respect to his faith, experience of divine 
things, his knowledge and other qualifications ; and 
if he give satisfactory evidence of his attainments in 
these things, he is accepted and consecrated ; and by 
this solemn act he receives an authority he had not be- 
fore to exercise his gifts to the edification of the church. 
This is an official recognition of him as a fellow 7 - 
laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, and a sanction of 
his official relation to the church. By this procedure 
6< the gift" is imparted to him " with the laying on of 
the hands of the presbytery," by which he is authori- 
zed to exercise himself as an accredited minister of 
Jesus Christ in that particular branch of the church, 
so long as he conforms to its ministerial requisitions, 
and no longer. 

Now, it will be perceived that in all this there is a 
condition implied, if not indeed formally expressed* on 
the fulfilment of w T hich he is permitted to exercise his 
powers in the Christian ministry ; and that a failure 
on his part to fulfil this condition w r orks a forfeiture 

of his privilege to perform the functions of a minister 

11* 



250 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

of Jesus Christ in that community. He entered upon 
his work on the supposition of certain qualifications, 
and on the promise of performing certain duties pecu- 
liar to his station as an ambassador of Christ. It 
was in reliance on his sincerity, and anticipation of 
his fidelity in his work, that he was admitted to the 
holy order of the Christian ministry. Supposing, 
therefore, that he fail to perform these duties — that 
he apostatize from the faith and purity of the gos- 
pel — does he not thereby forfeit his privileges, and 
deprive himself of the immunities of his office ? It 
appears to me that nothing is more plain and unde- 
niable. And yet the doctrine of succession denies 
both these positions, by investing a man with a sort 
of inviolability of official character. 

It says, in the first place, let the character of the 
candidate for office be whatever it may, though he 
were as wicked as Cain, if he succeed in obtaining 
the oil of consecration, he is bona fide a bishop ; 
and though, secondly, he might have been sincere 
on his entrance upon his office, and afterward be- 
came as open and as flagrant an apostate as Judas, 
he is a bishop still — and all his official acts are valid, 
I say the doctrine of uninterrupted succession drives 
its abettors to this absurd conclusion. The moment 
they admit that certain moral and spiritual qualifi- 
cations are essential to a competency for the sacred 
office, they are sharp sighted enough to see that they 
nullify, officially annihilate the greater portion of those 
apostolic successors who occupied the chair of St. 
Peter from the middle of the fourth century to the 
present time ; for these were entirely destitute of 
those qualifications which St. Paul described as es- 
sential to a bishop, and which are formally demanded* 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST- 251 

ex animo, by every orthodox church under heaven. 
Thus does this fatal doctrine sweep from the church 
every barrier against the overflowings of ungodliness, 
and every guard which the piety and wisdom of the 
men of God have placed around the sanctuary of holi- 
ness to preserve its purity. 

Allowing that the views here expressed are 
just, it will follow that the power which conferred 
orders upon a candidate, has authority to take them 
away whenever it has good reason to believe the in- 
cumbent has forfeited them by malconduct. And 
the parable of the talents furnishes an argument 
from analogy in favor of this conclusion. The 
slothful s'ervant who neglected to improve his talent, 
lost not only what he might have gained by dili- 
gence, but the original talent itself. But we have 
an incontrovertible evidence in favor of this view 
of the subject in the case of Judas Iscariot. " He 
was," says the apostle Peter, "numbered with us, 
and had obtained a part of this ministry;" and in 
the solemn invocation to God for direction in select- 
ing a suitable person to fill his place, the same in- 
spired apostle saith, " Thou, Lord, w r hich knowest 
the hearts of all men, show whether of these two 
thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this 
ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by 
transgression fell," Acts i, 17, 25. Here then 
is proof indisputable, that even the apostolic office 
may be forfeited by transgression. And this must 
set the question at rest with all those who have 
any veneration for Scripture authority. And that 
this is a right view of the subject is manifest from 
the practice of the church for many centuries, as 1" 
might easily show, were it necessary, by citing par* 



252 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

licular examples, and also from the practice now 
prevalent among the purest churches in Christendom, 
who, from respect for their own character, as well 
as a veneration for Scripture authority, act upon this 
principle. What! shall a church be compelled to 
retain a Judas within her bosom ! But the subject 
is so plain, as it appears to me, that none but he 
who is hard pressed for argument to defend an hypo- 
thesis, will attempt to controvert it. On this most 
obvious principle, I found the following argument : — 

A doctrine which sanctions licentiousness in the 
ministry of Jesus Christ cannot be true : — 

But the doctrine of the succession does this : there- 
fore it is not true. 

The minor proposition, which alone is susceptible 
of controversy, is sustained by all those examples I 
have cited respecting the licentiousness of the bishops 
of Rome — all of whom this succession sanctions as 
canonical bishops, and thereby stamps itself with the 
indelible impression of licentiousness. It in fact fur- 
nishes an apology for all those libidinous actions 
which disgraced the priesthood in the darker ages of 
the church, as well as those simoniacal proceedings 
which were sanctioned by the highest ecclesiastical 
authorities, even before the days of Hildebrand or 
Gregory VIL, in the 11th century. And so closely 
interwoven into the entire web of the church were 
these vicious practices, that even this high-handed 
pontiff, who affected and actually attempted to bind 
kings and emperors fast to the throne of the popedom 
as tributary vassals, could not separate them without 
tearing the priestly robes into fragments. Will any 
man now plead that these men were the legitimate 
successors of the apostles, and that through their 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 253 

desecrated hands the episcopal mitre has been trans- 
mitted, from one to another, immaculate and uncorrupt ? 

There is yet a more fearful consequence flowing 
from the doctrine, that the power which confers orders 
may take them away. It is well known that at the 
Reformation all those who protested against the cor- 
ruptions of the Church of Rome, and thereby obtained 
the name of Protestants, were excommunicated from 
that church. "What then became of the authority 
which they had received ? Had their ecclesiastical 
superiors, or had they not, power to pronounce the 
sentence of excommunication ? To say that they 
had, is to allow that whatever authority they derived 
from the papal hierarchy was taken from them. Now 
what authority was that ? Not to preach, and pray, 
and to do good in this way to the souls of men. The 
principle we have recognized supposes them, allowing 
them to have been good men, to have had this autho- 
rity before. But it was an authority to baptize, to 
administer the Lord's supper, and, if they were 
bishops, with the concurrence of the pope as episcopus 
primo, or chief bishop, to consecrate others. This 
then was the authority taken from them by their ex- 
communication. And this was the very thing which 
the pope of Rome claimed the right and the pow r er to 
do, as well as to consign them over to " Satan for the 
destruction of the flesh." 

But to say that the bishop of Rome had not power 
to pronounce the sentence of excommunication, is 
exactly identical with asserting the doctrine, already 
shown to be founded in error, of the inviolability of 
the episcopal character. To adopt this dogma would 
involve the consequence, that though a man in the 
sacred garb should turn an open infidel, should 



254 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



blaspheme Jesus Christ, and proclaim an irrecon- 
cilable war upon the entire system of Christianity, he 
must nevertheless be kept within the fold, and treated 
as an immaculate shepherd. Does such absurd 
doctrine need any farther refutation ? " Wo worth the 
day" that should call for it. 

It remains, therefore, an indisputable truth, that 
those who invest another with ecclesiastical orders on 
condition that he possesses certain qualifications and 
continues to discharge the duties of his office— all 
which is most manifestly implied in the examination 
and professions of candidates for the ministry— have 
a power and a right to cfo'vest him of it whenever he 
fails to fulfil these conditions. Or if it should appear 
that the candidate had deceived his examiners and 
ordainers, this very deception, as it appears to me, 
would, when detected, nullify all that had been done 
for him, and totally disqualify him for the work of the 
ministry. 

Now, those Roman Catholic bishops who took upon 
them that high office in the Romish Church, bound 
themselves by a solemn vow that they would adhere 
to all the peculiarities of the Romish Church. They 
professed their faith in the seven sacraments^ the 
seven orders, three sacred and four secular, in the 
supremacy of the pope, the infallibility of the church, 
the celibacy of the priesthood, and, in a word, in all 
those things by which that church was and is distin- 
guished. And it was on condition of their engaging 
to adhere to all these things, to teach and enforce 
them, that they received consecration as bishops. 
The question therefore is,— 

Whether, when these bishops protested against these 
things, and set themselves to work to pull them down, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



255 



they did not violate their ordination vows, and thereby 
forfeit the privilege of exercising the functions of their 
office ? And if they did, whether the pope had not 
the right to depose them, and to strip them of their 
official character ? Will any man dispute this ? 
Common sense would condemn him for the attempt. 

Well, this being done, as it certainly was, w r ere 
these men any longer bishops in consequence of their 
having received consecration from Rome ? Did not 
the act of deposition deprive them of all that official 
character, and divest them of all that power which 
they inherited as the sons of the Romish Church ? 
Can any thing be more undeniable ? The same power 
which had raised them to their official dignity, on 
condition of their belief in certain dogmas, and their 
promise to adhere to and defend them, now that they 
failed to fulfil this condition, and even protested 
against those things which they had once professed to 
believe and promised to teach, had a right to degrade 
them from their rank as bishops, and to withdraw 7, 
from them all the power with which they had been 
invested. They were no Roman Catholic bishops, 
and therefore had no right to officiate as such. 
Whether they were ministers of Jesus Christ is 
another question. 

Let us, in order to make this plain to every reader, 
suppose a parallel case. Suppose then that a bishop 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church should enter his 
protest against episcopacy, against the sacraments of 
the Lord's supper and baptism, and all those pecu- 
liarities by w T hich that church is distinguished from 
other denominations — -would he be tolerated ? Would 
not that church depose him ? They certainly would. 
Well ; suppose that they had a canon which recognized 



256 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

this bishop as the supreme ruler in their chuich — from 
whom all episcopal acts, such as consecration, must 
emanate, would not his deposition make a chasm in 
their line of succession? It certainly would. But 
many such depositions happened in the Romish 
Church. Letting this, however, pass, suppose he 
were only an ordinary bishop, would not his deposi- 
tion deprive him of his official character, and render 
all his subsequent acts, as a bishop, entirely null and 
void ? This, I apprehend, will not be disputed. 
And will not the same apply to those reforming bishops 
who rose against the Romish hierarchy, and protested 
so solemnly against its unscriptural dogmas? This, 
indeed, was felt at the time, and they provided against 
its consequences in two ways : — 

1. By setting up this claim of perpetual priesthood, 
founded on the unbroken line of succession, and the 
inviolability of the episcopal character. These were 
the high churchmen against whom Stillingfleet, Lord 
King, and a host of others protested. 

2. By pleading that succession is a rope of sand, 
and that those otherwise called of God and qualified 
by learning, spiritual gifts, and holiness, might, in a 
case of necessity, establish such a form of government 
as they pleased, if they only kept within the Scrip- 
ture warrant, and provide for the stated ordinances, 
independently of such a succession as that for which 
their adversaries contended. These latter compre- 
hended some of the most learned, holy, and devoted 
men of the nation, and were thence denominated 
Puritans. 

But to the point in hand — allowing that the power 
which invests, can cfovest, as I think I have proved, 
then were the Protestant bishops, by the bull of ex- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 257 



communication, stripped of their official character, and 
entirely deprived of whatever authority they had 
derived from the Church of Rome. 

Here then, so far as the English Church is con- 
cerned, the chain of succession is again snapped 
asunder. The connection between them and the 
Romish Church was, by means of the act of excom- 
munication, severed at once and for ever. For what, 
then, is their succession good ? For just nothing. 
It is totally destroyed — irrecoverably lost — and hence 
those who depend upon it alone for the validity of 
their orders, depend upon a floating idea that has no 
archetype in truth. 

Pro Ecclesia, therefore, et id genus omne, (and his 
ivhole tribe,) must seek for some other foundation on 
which to rest the validity of their ordination, or they 
must sink to rise no more. They must, I should 
judge, revive the arguments of the reformers, when 
pressed by those against whom they had protested, 
and plead that they had authority from God, inde- 
pendently of human power, to fulfil their high com- 
mission as His ambassadors to a lost world. 



NUMBER XX. 

Dr. Chapman mistakes the doctrine of the reformers — Examina- 
tion of Calvin's opinion— Of Beza's, Luther's, Melancthon's, 
Whif gift's; and others — King James— Forms of government 
established by Calvin and Luther contradict the conclusions of Dr. 
Chapman — Opinions of these and other writers sustain the doctrine 
that episcopacy is allowable though not essential. 

Against the arguments adduced in the former 
number, Dr. Chapman stands ready to enter his pro- 
test. In his zeal to support diocesan episcopacy, the 



258 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

divine right of bishops, and the line of episcopal suc- 
cession in a third order by a triple consecration, he 
introduces John Calvin, Martin Luther, Philip Melanc- 
thon, Theodore Beza, and Martin Bucer, as having 
sanctioned his doctrine by the weight of their autho- 
rity. As I promised to examine his quotations from 
these eminent men, who first lifted up their voices 
against the corruptions of Rome, and attempted to 
cleanse the Augean stable from its offensive defile- 
ments, this seems the fittest time to redeem my 
pledge. It is indeed moot unfortunate for Dr. Chap- 
man, that he should attempt his justification by such 
testimonies, and to prop up his cause by such slender 
supporters. 

That any man should make an effort to persuade 
his readers that the very men who lent the weight of 
their influence to establish a presbyterian government, 
should at the same time assert that an episcopal 
government by a third order in the ministry is essen- 
tial to the very existence of a true church, is one of 
those moral problems, which can be solved only by 
supposing the influence of that prejudice which blinds 
the understanding of even good men to the light of 
truth. How preposterous ! To suppose that these 
intrepid reformers exerted themselves to establish a 
church on a foundation which they themselves declared 
to be rotten — unscriptural — contrary to apostolic prac- 
tice ! A man who can bring himself to believe this 
incredible paradox, may believe that the antipodes 
walk upon their heads, merely because they occupy 
an opposite side of the globe to ourselves. What ! 
Calvin, Luther, and Melancthon, proclaim themselves 
such finished hypocrites as to exert all their great 
talents in founding churches upon Presbyterian prin- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 259 

ciples, at the same time that they believed such prin- 
ciples false — that the churches thus founded could 
have no valid ordinances, because their ministers were 
interlopers, possessing no ecclesiastical powers ! The 
man who can palm off upon a people such declarations 
as truth, must calculate largely upon the ignorance 
and credulity of the people to whom he speaks. In- 
deed the author I am examining seems to write as 
though he alone possessed the documents relating to 
these subjects, and therefore no one can have even a 
pretence for calling in question the justness of his con- 
clusions. Though he was doubtless perfectly sincere 
in his professions, yet he attracts notice principally 
by the boldness of his affirmations — such is the influ- 
ence of a strong attachment to a preconceived theory. 
How else can we account for the fact of his quoting 
from these authors, who say not one word in favor 
of either the divine right of diocesan episcopacy or 
of uninterrupted succession, to support his exclusive 
right of ordination in a third order ? 

Let us, however, examine those quotations Dr. 
Chapman has made with a view to support his hypo- 
thesis — for such it should be called until something 
more apposite is brought in its support — an ideal thing 
as far from the minds of Luther and Calvin as the 
pope's supremacy was from the heart and soul of St. 
Peter, indeed the Catholic priests have a more 
plausible pretence for making St. Peter the foundation 
of their church, from the words of our Saviour to him, 
when he said, " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock 
will I build my church," than Dr. Chapman has for 
supposing that Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, and Beza, 
intended to give countenance to the doctrine of episcopal 
succession, as now taught by high-toned Episcopalians- 



260 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

But to sustain himself in his declaration, he gives 
his readers the following quotation from Calvin : — 

" If they would give us such a hierarchy, in which 
the bishops have such a pre-eminence as that they do 
not refuse to be subject to Christ, and to depend upon 
him as their only head, and refer all to him ; then I 
will confess, that they are worthy of all anathema, if 
any such shall be found, who will not reverence it, 
and submit themselves to it with the utmost obedi- 
ence.'' Now is there one word here in favor of dio- 
cesan episcopacy ? Not one. Is there a single decla- 
ration here implying Calvin's belief that a third order, 
called bishops, was a divine right, and essential to 
the existence of a valid ministry, and a true church ? 
Not one. 

The true state of the case is, Calvin, whose judg- 
ment in ecclesiastical matters was consulted by the 
reformers in England, gave it as his opinion, that epis- 
copacy, not being contrary to Scripture, might be 
lawfully retained as a matter of expediency ; and at 
the same time affirms, by way of satisfying the 
scruples of those w r ho had doubts respecting it, that 
if they of Geneva could have bishops of such a 
moderate character that their pride would not prompt 
them to such a lordly pre-eminence as to lead them 
to usurp an unchristian authority over their brethren, 
he would most gladly receive them. But he never 
dreamed of asserting the essentiality of such an order 
— much less that it was so divinely established that 
there could be no valid ministry and ordinances with- 
out it. Who beside a zealous secessionist would 
ever think of imputing to John Calvin the absurd con- 
duct of proclaiming the rottenness of the very foun- 
dation which his own hands had laid ? Of denying 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 261 

the validity of those very orders which he himself 
conferred ? If there were a sentence in his writings 
which could, by a tortuous interpretation, be made to 
speak such a language, both charity and justice would 
require a different construction ; for a man's actions, 
if he be sincere and without restraint, are the truest 
interpretation of his language. Beside, Calvin might 
have approved of episcopacy as established in England, 
for England, as being suited to the state of things in 
that counrty, without wishing it established in Geneva, 
where a different state of civil polity prevailed. This 
quotation, therefore, is so far from proving that Calvin 
believed in the divine right of episcopacy, and in the 
uninterrupted succession of a third order by a triple 
consecration, that it proves, in connection with Cal- 
vin's practical comment upon his own words, directly 
the reverse, and fully sustains our position, that though 
episcopacy be not commanded in Scripture, nor for- 
bidden, therefore it may be adopted as a matter of ex- 
pediency, without infracting any law of Christ's king- 
dom. Thanks to Dr. Chapman for reminding us of this 
respectable authority in justification of our proceed- 
ings. Calvin's opinion was, that episcopacy, though 
not essential, yet if it can be had of such a character 
as shall not contravene the laws of Christ, may be 
received with suitable reverence ; so say we, and act 
accordingly. 

The quotation from Beza amounts to the same 
thing, and no more. He says, " In my writings 
touching church government, I ever impugned the 
Romish hierarchy, but never intended to touch or im- 
pugn the ecclesiastical polity of the Church of Eng- 
land. If there are any who reject the whole order 
of episcopacy, God forbid that any man of a sound 



262 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

mind should assent to the madness of such men/' 
What does he mean by the whole order of epis- 
copacy ?" It would seem from this phraseology, 
that there was some part of the " order of episcopacy," 
which he would allow men to reject. The preceding 
part of the quotation tells us what he meant, namely, 
as it was established in England — this he never meant 
to touch — that is, he never meant to interfere with the 
ecclesiastical economy of a church foreign to his own 
■ — but while he claimed the right of modelling his own 
church according to his views of propriety, on the 
Presbyterian plan, he was willing others should enjoy 
the same privilege unmolestedly. A most demonstra- 
tive proof this, that he did not consider any one parti- 
cular form of church government of divine right ; fox 
if he had, and if that were diocesan episcopacy, he 
acted very inconsistently in adhering to Presbyterian 
parity. Did the liberality of sentiment, in reference 
to this subject, which distinguished those great men, 
equally characterize our modern high churchmen, the 
necessity of this discussion had never existed. While 
Beza was satisfied with his own form of government, 
he was willing that others should enjoy the same 
liberty. This quotation therefore makes for us. It 
establishes the position I have all along maintained, 
that an episcopal form of church government, or the 
contrary, resolves itself into the considerations of ex- 
pediency, and not of immutable right. We shall be 
thankful to Dr. Chapman for many more such autho- 
rities in favor of our thesis, and against his own 
hypothesis. 

Luther and Melancthon are also quoted by this same 
author in support of his doctrine of succession and 
divine right of bishops of a third order in the ministry 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



263 



~whereas he might with equal justice and propriety 
have quoted them in proof of the infallibility of the 
pope, to which they once so firmly adhered. What 
does Luther say ? He says, " We would acknowledge 
them," the Romish bishops, " as our fathers, and 
willingly obey their authority, which we find sup- 
ported by the word of God." That is, " It is sup- 
ported by the word of God," that we should " obey 
them that have the rule over us." This Luther 
would most gladly have done, could he be convinced 
that their requisitions were according to Scripture ; but 
as he was thoroughly convinced that the pope and his 
adherents required unscriptural things at his hands, 
notwithstanding his desire to obey them, he abjured 
their authority, and treated their assumptions with 
indignant contempt. Can any man persuade himself 
to believe that Luther meant to say that the word of 
God required of him an obedience to those very 
bishops whose authority he condemned, whose un- 
scriptural dogmas he refuted, and whose pride and 
pomposity his very soul abhorred ? It is true he 
lamented the necessity of these things. Could he 
have done it with a good conscience, he would most 
gladly have adhered to the Church of Rome ; for 
nothing was farther from his thoughts at first, than an 
abjuration of the pope's supremacy; he was driven, 
from the power of truth and the force of circumstances, 
to do as he did, and not from a deliberate choice pre- 
viously made with a view merely to overthrow the 
power of the Romish hierarchy. 

•But after his eyes were thoroughly opened to see 
the depth of the iniquity which lay concealed beneath 
the rubbish of the Romish superstitions, he proclaimed 
an irreconcilable war upon the pope and all his 



264 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

adherents ; denounced the papal hierarchy as the head 
of antichrist ; poured forth a torrent of indignant elo- 
quence against the iniquitous practices of priestly in- 
dulgences ; and while and after he committed the 
pope's bull of excommunication to the flames on the 
plains of Wittemberg, he hurled his anathemas at this 
assumed head of the church, with all the fearlessness 
and intrepidity of an independent minister of Jesus 
Christ, who is conscious of the power and majesty 
of that truth by which his soul is inspired. And is 
this the man to bow and crouch to those very men 
whom he thus denounced ! A most unfortunate in- 
terpretation this, to prop up the tottering cause of 
episcopal succession ! Luther would as soon have 
acknowledged the see of Rome to be the pure fountain 
of truth, as he would have exhorted his followers to 
bow submissively to the lordly dictates of its popes and 
cardinals, or have asserted his belief in the divinity of 
their origin, after his understanding was thoroughly 
enlightened to behold the abominations of popery. 
Luther's testimony, therefore, does no service to the 
cause of the successionists. 

Melancthon, also, expresses himself to the same 
effect. His words are, " I would to God it lay in me 
to restore the government of bishops. For I see what 
manner of church we shall have, the ecclesiastical 
polity being dissolved. I do see that hereafter will 
grow up a greater tyranny in the church than there 
ever was before. By what right or law may we dis- 
solve the ecclesiastical polity, if the bishops will grant 
to us that which in reason they ought to grant. And 
if it were lawful for us to do so, yet surely it is not 
expedient. Luther was ever of this opinion." 

Now it is most evident that both Luther and 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 265 

Melancthon place their desire of retaining bishops in 
the church on the ground of expediency, and not on 
divine right. The latter, in the above quotation, 
admits that it may be lawful to dissolve that " eccle- 
siastical polity" which recognizes episcopacy, but 
doubts its expediency for fear of its bringing into the 
church tyranny. Will any man say that it is lawful 
to dissolve that which God has established and made 
of perpetual obligation ? That this is their meaning, 
is manifest from their actions. If they had considered 
episcopacy essential to the existence of a Christian 
church, would they have established one without it ? 
Much less did they believe in the necessity of an 
uninterrupted succession of a third order by a triple 
consecration, else would they, as simple presbyters, 
never have proceeded to ordain ministers themselves, 
and to organize a church under the government of 
presbyters, as they unquestionably did. The same 
absurdity as would have been attributable to Calvin 
on the supposition of his belief in the essentiality of 
the divine right of episcopacy, and the unbroken line 
of succession, would appear in the conduct of Luther, 
on the groundless presumption that he believed in 
that doctrine. While they admitted that episcopacy 
was desirable, provided they could procure one of a 
primitive character, they knew, and acted accordingly, 
that the validity of the Christian ministry and ordi- 
nances did not depend upon such an episcopacy, but 
upon something more substantial. They left, there* 
fore, bigots to dispute about these things, while they 
proceeded to organize a church without calling to their 
aid a third order made so by a triple consecration. 
How perfectly absurd to suppose that they would 
have done this with the fact staring them in the face, 

12 



266 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

that such an order, so created, was essential to the 
very existence of a Christian church. 

The opinions of these men on the continent were 
in accordance with many of the reforming bishops of 
England, who, though they approved of episcopacy, 
did not consider it essentially necessary to constitute 
a true church of Christ. In proof of this declaration, 
permit me to quote the following testimonies. Arch- 
bishop Whitgift, of whose learning and wisdom no 
one ever doubted, says : — 

" That the form of discipline is not particularly and 
by name set down in Scripture. No kind of govern- 
ment is expressed in the word, or can necessarily be 
concluded from thence." Dr. Cosins affirms, " All 
churches have not the same form of discipline, neither 
is it necessary that they should, seeing it cannot be 
proved that any certain particular form of church 
government is commended to us by the word of God." 
Dr. Low expresses himself to the same effect in the 
following words : — " No certain form of government is 
prescribed in the word, only general rules are laid 
down " Bishop Bridges says, " God hath not ex- 
pressed the form of church government, at least not so 
as to bind us to it." Even King James, who said, 
" No bishop, no king," expresses himself in the 
following manner on this subject : — >" That the civil 
power in any nation hath the right of prescribing what 
external form of church government it please, which 
doth most agree to the civil form of government in the 
state." Dr. Sutcliffe and Crakenthorpe assert the 
same thing. (See Iren. p. 394.) To these the 
names of many others might be added : but I shall 
content myself with only one more, which is that of 
Bishop Burnet, in his exposition of the 23d Article of 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 267 

the English Church. He says, " Finally, if a com- 
pany of Christians find the public worship where they 
live, to be so defiled that they cannot with a good 
conscience join in it, and if they do not know of any 
place to which they can conveniently go where they 
may worship God purely in a regular way ; if, I say, 
such a body finding some that have been ordained, 
though to the lower functions, should submit it entirely 
to their conduct ; or finding none of these, should, by 
a common consent, desire some of their own number 
to minister to them in holy things, &c. — though we 
are very sure that this is quite out of all rule, and 
could not be done without a very great sin, unless the 
necessity were great and apparent — yet if the neces- 
sity be real and not feigned, this is not condemned 
nor annulled by the article." 

Now these were all stanch friends of the established 
Church of England, some of them bishops of acknow- 
ledged talents and reputation, and yet all supporters 
of the doctrine asserted in these numbers, and main- 
tained by those foreign divines above quoted-. Indeed 
the sticklers for divine right and an unbroken succes- 
sion have been but comparatively few either in or out 
of that church. 

That this was the view which Luther and his 
coadjutors took of this subject, is manifest from the 
fact, that the Lutheran Church is not organized on the 
same principles in every country where it exists. In 
Sweden and Norway the episcopal form is adopted ; 
in Denmark the episcopal form is maintained, while 
the .chief officer is denominated a superintendent ; but 
" in Germany the superior power is vested in a con- 
sistory with a distinction of rank and privileges, and a 
subordination of inferior clergy to their superiors dif- 



268 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

ferent from the parity of Presbyterianism." (See 
Buck.) But though this superiority of one minister 
over others is acknowledged, yet it is not a difference 
in order, but only prima inter pares, the first among 
equals, for the sake of a more orderly manner of con- 
ducting their ecclesiastical affairs. There is there^ 
fore no foundation from the opinions expressed by 
these ministers, much less from their practice, for in- 
ferring that they believed in the exclusive right of or- 
dination in a third order, nor in the divine institution 
of diocesan episcopacy. 

It is well known that the reformers were assailed 
by their popish adversaries with great virulence, and 
accused of differing as much among themselves as 
they did from their accusers, This being in part true, 
many efforts were made among the leaders of the 
several bands of Protestants to come as near together 
as they could consistently. This led them in Switzer- 
land, in Germany, in France, and England, to make 
concessions to one another, on the several points con- 
cerning which there were differences of opinion, that 
this scandal might be removed as far as possible from 
among them. In this spirit of conciliation, the above 
opinions respecting episcopacy were expressed, which, 
while they evince the spirit of liberality by which they 
were actuated toward each other, manifest an abhor- 
rence of that exclusive principle which now charac- 
terizes those who strive to press them into their 
service. 

On the whole I cannot but conclude, from an im- 
partial view of these quoted opinions, that they tend 
to establish the principle I have endeavored to main- 
tain throughout these numbers, that though episcopacy 
be not expressly commanded in Scripture, it is allow- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 269 



able on Scriptural principles, and may therefore be 
adopted without any dereliction of duty, or of contra- 
vening any law of Christ's kingdom. 

In my next, I shall inquire whether God does not 
claim the prerogative of breaking a nominal line of 
succession to pieces whenever it stands in his way 
of working 



NUMBER XXI. 

God claims the right of rejecting a priesthood which had cor- 
rupted itself— Proved from the example of Eli and his house — From 
Scripture, Jer. xxiii, 30, 40 ; MaL ii, 1, 9— Luther and Wesley — 
Gloomy consequences of uninterrupted succession — Earnest 
appeal. 

Having shown that our position is sustained by the 
opinions of some of the ablest and best men, both in 
and out of the establishment — and I might have added 
also some respectable names in the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church in this country"* — I will now endeavor 
to redeem my pledge, that a ministry nominally in 

* The following are the words of Bishop White : — " Ours 
calls herself episcopal. She affirms episcopacy to rest on 
Scriptural institution, and to have subsisted from the beginning. 
On the varying governments of other societies, she pronounces 
no judgment. The question is not whether we think correctly, 
but whether we are tolerated in what we think, If this be deter- 
mined in the affirmative, we must, to be consistent, interdict all 
other than episcopalian ministry within our bounds." 

This is just what we ask for ourselves. We condemn not . 
others. Let them enjoy their liberty. But are we " tolerated* 
or as I have heretofore expressed it, " allowed" in thinking it 
right and expedient to establish episcopacy, without supposing 
it necessary to derive it from an unbroken line of succession 
from the apostles in a third order ? This is all we ask. And 
if our opponents had let us alone, without impugning our orders 
and ordinances as spurious, we should have had no disposition 



270 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



the line of succession which God himself had estab- 
lished, may, by its abuse of his mercies, become ob- 
noxious to his displeasure, and be therefore by him 
broken to pieces. 

It is well known that Aaron and his family were 
selected by the special command of God to minister 
at the altar among the Israelites. From the family 
of Levi the priests and the Levites were to be selected, 
in all generations to corne. This was according to the 
appointment of God. By comparing Exodus xxix, 9 ; 
xi, 15, with Numbers xxv 10-13, it will be perceived 
that God promised the priesthood to Aaron and his sons 
as " an everlasting priesthood throughout their genera- 
tions ; and the office of high priest was to descend to 
the eldest son from generation to generation. From 

to disturb them. Nor are the present numbers written to in- 
validate their ministry, but simply to defend our own from their 
rude and reckless attacks. Let those, therefore, " who arraign 
us before the public" shoulder the responsibility of the discus- 
sion ; and not attempt to transfer it to us merely because we 
presume to speak in our own behalf. 

But I have quoted the above from Bishop White, to exhibit 
the amiable and liberal spirit which pervaded his breast, as also 
to show that his views quadrate with our own,, and with the 
opinions of those reformers quoted in my previous number. All 
he asks is toleration* He does not even presume to condemn 
other denominations for not adhering to his views of episcopacy ? 
nor yet to call in question the validity of their administrations* 
This moderate and catholic spirit was worthy of the venerable 
prelate who has left it on record, to the confusion of Dr. Chap- 
man, Pro Ecclesia, and their endorsers* the Churchman, and 
others of a like temperament. If, therefore, our opponents will 
not allow that " we think correctly" let them at least tolerate 
us in what we do think," and not vainly and fruitlessly strive 
to make us believe that our ministers have no valid ordination, 
that our children are unbaptized, and that those who receive 
the Lord's supper at our hands are guilty of sacrilege { Thk 
is intolerable, and should not be endured. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 271 

subsequent events, which will be noticed presently, it 
seems that though this promise was expressed in the most 
absolute form, yet on their failing to fulfil the condition 
most evidently implied, the promise was withheld, or 
failed of its accomplishment. According to this divine 
regulation, the high priesthood descended from Aaron 
to his eldest son Eleazar, and from him to Phinehas, 
his grandson, to whom, on account of his zeal in vin- 
dicating the honor of God, in revenging the Midianites 
for their attempt to lead the children of Israel into 
idolatry, the priesthood was promised in a perpetual 
covenant. See Num. xxv, 7. But even the fulfilment 
of this promise was made to depend on the fidelity of 
those who were thus legally entitled to the honor of 
the priesthood, for on account of the unfaithfulness 
of his children, it was transferred to Ithamar, a 
younger branch of the Aaronic family. 

But that we may see this awful prerogative of 
Jehovah displayed, in breaking in upon the line which 
he had thus conditionally established, let us turn our 
attention to EU, a descendant of Ithamar, who was 
the high priest in the commencement of Samuel's 
government. In consequence of his neglecting to 
restrain the wickedness of his two sons, who officiated 
as priests under him, to the eldest of which the high 
priesthood belonged according to the line of descent, 
God said unto him — 

" Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, 
when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house ? And 
did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be 
my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, 
to wear an ephod before me ? and did I give unto the 
house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of 
the children of Israel ?" — " Wherefore the Lord God 



272 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the 
house of thy father, should walk before me for ever ; 
but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me ; for them 
that honor me will I honor, and they that despise me 
shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come, 
that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy 
father's house, that there shall not be an old man in 
thine house." — " And the man of thine whom I shall 
not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine 
eyes, and to grieve thine heart ; and all the increase 
of thine house shall die in the flower of their age. 
And this shall be a sign unto thee, that shall come 
upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas ; in one 
day they shall die both of them. And I will raise me 
up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that 
which is in mine heart and in my mind : and I will 
build him a sure house ; and he shall walk before 
mine Anointed for ever." 1 Sam. ii, 27—35."* 

* I have thought that this severe denunciation against Eli 
has been misinterpreted by many, and made to apply improperly 
to parents in general. Though it he true that parents are re- 
sponsible for the general conduct of their children while in their 
minority, yet, if they determine to be wicked, in spite of all 
parental authority, prayers, and counsel, the consequence must 
rest upon their own heads. 

But the capital fault of Eli appears to have been, in per- 
mitting his sons, knowing them to be wicked, to officiate as 
priests. Though he could not change their moral dispositions 
and habits, he could have interposed his authority to prevent 
them from performing the duties and enjoying the emoluments 
of the priesthood. A lesson this to those parents, being 
ministers themselves, who thrust their sons into the ministry, 
whether qualified or not. Though we may not succeed in 
reforming our sons, provided they are profligates, we may in- 
terpose our authority to prevent their desecrating the altar of 
God with their polluted hands. And let the example of Eli 
warn us of the consequences of such parental partiality. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 273 

This was a most awful denunciation ! And in 
chap, iv, 11, we have an account of the fulfilment of 
this threatening, in the death of Hophni and Phinehas, 
in the battle which was fought with the Philistines, 
when the " ark of God was taken," the calamitous 
news of which so affected Eli, that " he fell off the 
seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck 
brake, and he died ; for he was an old man, and 
heavy," iv, 18. Thus was the direct line of the high 
priesthood in the oldest son cut asunder, in the death 
which was inflicted upon Hophni, as a punishment 
for his sacrilegious conduct. 

But this awful prediction had its more complete 
accomplishment in the reign of Solomon, when " he 
thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord, 
that he might fulfil the word of the Lord, which he 
spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh." See 
1 Kings ii, 27. By this act, Solomon was instru- 
mental in executing the vengeance of Almighty God 
upon the house of Eli, according to the prediction of 
the " prophet of Jehovah," for Abiathar was the last 
of the family of Eli who ministered before the Lord ; 
and Zadok, who was made priest in the stead of Abi- 
athar, was of the family of Eleazar, by which change 
the priesthood reverted back to the channel in which 
it flowed before it descended to Ithamar, the pro- 
genitor of Eli. 

Thus we see that God claims and exercises the right 
of breaking to pieces the line of the priesthood when- 
ever it becomes corrupted by wickedness, notwith- 
standing the most absolute promise he himself had 
made of its perpetuity. A melancholy proof this of 
the mutability of the human character, and a demon- 
stration that in all the promises of God, though no 
12* 



274 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

condition be expressed, one is always implied : " At 
what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and 
concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it do 
evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I 
will repent of the good wherewith I said I would 
benefit them," Jer. xviii, 9, 10. These words fully 
explain God's method of dealing with nations, king- 
doms, and with individuals, and show that however 
absolute the promise may appear, there is always such 
a condition implied as involves a forfeiture of the 
blessings annexed to the promise if the condition be 
not fulfilled. So it was in the case of Eli's house, 
and so it will be in every priesthood, however much 
it may boast of its line of succession, which fails to 
answer the design of its institution. Who will per- 
suade himself that the God who manifested his impartial 
justice toward the house of Aaron, would allow the 
bishopric of Rome to stand secure amidst the abo- 
minable pollutions by which its incumbents degraded 
and disgraced themselves? No, indeed! He has 
long since dashed this succession to pieces, and chosen 
others than those who filled it to be his ministers. 

That this is His way of working is farther manifest 
from the following thundering language of the pro- 
phet : — " Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the 
Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. 
Behold I am against them that prophesy false dreams, 
saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people 
to err by their lies, and by their lightness ; yet I sent 
them not, nor commanded them ; therefore they shall 
not profit the people at all, saith the Lord,"—" And as 
for the prophets, and the priest, and the people that 
shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even punish 
that man, and his house." With what solemn weight 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 275 

should such words sound in the ears of those who have 
no other evidence of their call to the work of the 
ministry, than their being in the line of succession ! 
Such, according to this solemn message, though they 
may be in the line of the priesthood, " shall not profit 
the people," nor receive a reward of their labor, but 
shall be punished for their temerity and wickedness. 
Though they may claim their descent in the regular 
line, yet God saith that he never sent them ; and hence, 
so far from their proving a blessing to the people, he 
saith, " I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, 
and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten," 
Jer. xxiii, 30-40. 

Have not these words been awfully verified in the 
shattered line of succession we have been tracing ? 
Could any race of men be more exposed to " a per- 
petual shame," and to " an everlasting reproach," than 
those whose names stand recorded upon the page of 
ecclesiastical history, after they usurped the powers 
which did not originally belong to them ? But listen 
to the following words, which, if possible, are still more 
alarming : — 

u And now, 0 ye priests, this commandment is 
for you. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay 
it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord 
of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I 
will curse your blessings ; yea, I have cursed them 
already, because ye do not lay it to heart. Behold, 
I will corrupt your seed — And ye shall know that I 
have sent this commandment unto you, that my cove- 
nant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My 
covenant was with him, of life and peace ; and I gave 
them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and 
was afraid before my name. The law of truth was 



276 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips ; 
he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn 
many away from iniquity. But ye have departed out 
of the way ; ye have caused many to stumble at the 
law ; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith 
the Lord of hosts : therefore have I made you con- 
temptible and base before all the people, according as 
ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in 
the law," Mai. ii, 1-9. 

What a tremendously awful passage is this ! And 
with what point and pathos does the prophet appeal to 
the covenant of life and peace which was made with 
Levi, who walked with God in peace, and thereby 
turned many from iniquity, as an illustrious contrast 
to those wicked priests to whom this alarming address 
was made, who, in consequence of their having de- 
parted out of the way, had caused many to stumble 
at the law ! In consequence of this shameful de- 
parture from the covenant of their God, the provisions 
of which required fidelity on their part in order to 
insure to them its promised blessings, they were now 
threatened, notwithstanding their lineal descent from 
Levi, with having their seed corrupted, their blessings 
cursed, and of being made contemptible and base 
among the people. Of what use now to them was 
their succession ? Though it was such as God him- 
self had established " in a perpetual covenant," yet so 
palpably had they violated its stipulations, that they had 
thrown themselves under the awful maledictions of 
heaven, and exposed themselves to have their seed so 
corrupted as to be cut off from the inheritance of their 
ancestors. And this fearful threatening had its ac- 
complishment in the final overthrow of the entire 
Levitical priesthood, the prostration of their national 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 277 

dignity, and their dispersion among the nations of the 
earth. For who knows but if they had remained 
faithful to the light of their own dispensation, and had 
fulfilled the high destiny to which they had been called, 
they might have been prepared to receive the Messiah 
in his true character when he appeared in the person 
of Jesus of Nazareth, and the descendants of those 
very priests been exalted to the distinguished honor 
and privilege of ministers of the new and everlasting 
covenant ? " But because of unbelief they were 
cut off!" 

Be this as it may, we know that the curse of God 
came upon them to the uttermost, and that those priests 
have been held up to the scorn and derision of man- 
kind, and that from that day to this their seed has been 
so corrupted that it has produced naught but " briers 
and thorns, which is nigh unto cursing, whose end is 
to be burned." 

Here then I think I have proved that a priesthood^ 
though nominally in the line which God had esta- 
blished, may, by its flagrant acts of wickedness, make 
itself obnoxious to his sore displeasure, and expose 
itself to be thrust from the altar of God, and thereby 
be made base and contemptible before the people. 
And this is what I promised to do by the word of the 
Lord. 

Let us apply these thundering truths to the case in 
hand. Think you that God has bound himself to a suc- 
cession so regardless of all law and honor ? Has he re- 
stricted himself to a line in the priesthood so sunk into 
moral and spiritual pollution that he is dependent upon 
it alone for the purity of his ordinances, and the salva- 
tion of the souls of the people ? Did he pronounce 
such tremendous curses upon the descendants of Levi 



278 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

as a punishment for their defection from the ordinances 
of their God, and will he pass by a Christian priest- 
hood when it is equally corrupt, if not indeed more 
abominably defiled, and cause his blessings to descend 
upon mankind through their hands alone ? No, indeed ! 
He is bound by no such rules. As I have already 
proved, in every covenant he has ever made with man- 
kind, even where it appears in the most absolute form, 
there are certain conditions annexed to it, on the per- 
formance of which depends the fulfilment of God's 
promises. And on the failure to fulfil these stipula- 
tions, God is bound, as well by the law of his own 
nature, which is immutably opposed to sin of every 
kind, as by the terms of the contract, to withhold the 
promised blessings, and, instead of these, to send 
" blasting and mildew upon all their borders." 

This awful prerogative he has ever claimed and 
exercised. It is his unalterable law of procedure. 
And as he said respecting the rebellious house of Eli, 
" I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do ac- 
cording to that which is in my heart and in my mind," 
so he says to every rebellious church and Christian 
priesthood, " I will cut off thine arm and the arm of 
thine house," and ye shall no longer " cause my people 
to stumble at the law," by your abominations ; and in 
your stead I will raise me up other ministers who will 
do all my pleasure. So God raised up Luther and 
his coadjutors to break down the rebellious house of 
Rome. For a similar purpose he raised up the reform- 
ers in England and Scotland, that he might rid him- 
self of the worse than useless lumber which had long 
encumbered the church and cursed the people. And 
when the Protestants had corrupted themselves by 
departing from the letter and spirit of their own stand- 



AX ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 279 

ards, for the same purpose, and in the exercise of the 
same prerogative, he raised up Wesley and his coadju- 
tors to reform the church, and to save the people from 
being carried away with the floods of ungodliness. 
God never did, nor ever will, divest himself of this 
right. What puny arm is that which will attempt to 
set up his feeble, rotten, debased, polluted, and in- 
describably disgraced line of succession, against the 
right hand of the Most High, and then say, By this 
means alone Thou must work ! We alone are thy 
chosen instruments to make " known thy name in all 
the earth !" " He that sitteth in the heavens shall 
laugh" at such consummate folly. Such a priesthood, 
so supported, so polluted and desecrated, will he, " in 
his sore displeasure," " dash to pieces as a potter's 
vessel." 

Think you that the God of purity looked on with 
complacency and delight upon such men as Leo X., 
while seated in the chair of succession, and while em- 
ployed in opposing and persecuting Luther, who broke 
in upon the line of succession by his bold innovations 
upon the Church of Rome ! Upon such men as 
Lavington and others, who pleaded their lineal descent 
in the genealogy of apostolic bishops, while they 
poured contempt upon such men as John Wesley and 
his compeers in this holy work, who were striving by 
every possible, method to save the church and the 
people from the destruction which was coming upon 
the ungodly ? Think you that He smiled with ap- 
probation upon those pretended successors of the 
apostles in this country, who opposed and persecuted 
the Methodist preachers who weie risking their 
lives and their all for the salvation of souls, while 
those lineal descendants of the ancient bishops were 



280 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

running from their flocks, turning soldiers, and living 
upon the glebes, without even discharging one single 
act of sacred duty ? 

And suppose God had been confined to these idle 
shepherds, these polluted priests, these desecrated 
bishops, and to those ignorant, stupid hirelings, and 
had bound himself, according to their doctrine of suc- 
cession, to them alone for the channel of communi- 
cating with mankind ; pray tell me, ye who are of this 
opinion, What would have become of the world? 
Where would have been the church ? Buried in 
eternal oblivion ! The lamp of truth would have 
been long since extinguished. Neither Bible, prayer- 
book, hymn-book, nor a Christian priesthood, worth 
having, would have ever blessed the world. The 
symbolical heavens would have been long since 
covered with a dense cloud of impenetrable darkness. 
Neither sun, moon, nor stars, would be shining upon 
the earth. Not a single ray of light would now be 
seen radiating from the Sun of righteousness to direct 
the wandering pilgrim up to glory and immortality. 

See, then, the gloomy consequences of your doc- 
trine ! See the dismal gulf to which your turbid 
stream of succession and exclusive rights inevitably 
carries us ! And must we — 0 must we ! — to escape 
the curse pronounced upon schismatics—to secure 
the blessings of covenanted mercies — to bring our- 
selves and children within the pale of the true church, 
and to shelter ourselves from the scorching rays of 
divine indignation — must we, I ask with all the fervor 
and earnestness which an honest wish to know the 
truth inspires — must we, I say, all renounce our bap- 
tism, our sacramental and ordination vows — must we 
acknowledge that we have been guilty of rending the 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 281 

body of Christ — of disturbing God's established order 
of procedure — or otherwise lie down loaded with the 
dishonor belonging to interlopers, and for ever groan 
under the blighting curse pronounced upon the de- 
vourers of God's heritage, and the dividers of his 
flock ! 0 ye, our friends, help to deliver us from a 
malediction so terrible ! And yet all this must come 
upon us, or be avoided only on condition of our 
escaping by the uncovenanted mercies of God. So 
says the doctrine of succession — of exclusive rights ! 
I cannot therefore more appropriately conclude this 
number than by giving vent to the following prayer : 
"From all such schism and heresies," as would ex- 
pose us to a malediction so heavy, " good Lord deli- 
ver us." 



NUMBER XXII. 

God chooses his ministers — Change of dispensations — Change 
of priesthood — Proved from several examples — Luther's call and 
qualifications — Wesley's — His call extraordinary — In what sense 
— Ordained, not for the English Church, but for the Methodists — 
Over these he had acquired rights which none other had — On 
these is founded his right to ordain ministers for the Methodists. 

Having discarded the doctrine of succession as 
being essential to constitute a true ministry of Jesus 
Christ, it seems proper that we should inquire what 
is necessary to constitute such a ministry. It will 
not be disputed by any who believe in the divine 
authority of the Holy Scriptures, that God exercises 
the prerogative of choosing such men as he sees fit for 
the accomplishment of his purposes, and for the per- 
formance of his work ; and that he, as the sovereign 
of the universe, calls and employs them in such way 
and manner as he judges most conducive to his own 



282 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

glory and the good of mankind. In the righteous 
exercise of this prerogative he has not heretofore con- 
fined, and therefore need not now confine himself to 
any one particular method, nor restrict himself to any 
one family, in the selection of his instruments to carry 
on and perfect his work. 

That his dispensations have changed, no one ac- 
quainted with the history of his providence will for a 
moment dispute. In the early ages of society, it 
seems that the first born of each family performed the 
offices of priest, prophet, and king. Hence arose 
the patriarchal government, such as that exercised by 
Abraham, and several of his descendants. And even 
in his day there was a Melchizedec, whose genealogy 
is not traced in the sacred history, but who was, 
nevertheless, " king of Salem, and a priest of the 
Most High God," and who " blessed Abraham" on 
his return from the slaughter of the kings. Nor do 
we find Abraham refusing this blessing because Mel- 
chizedec was not in the regular line of the priesthood, 
or because he did not belong to his own tribe. And 
yet so eminent was this man, who on this occasion 
burst upon the world for a moment and then disap- 
peared again for ever, that he is considered by the 
apostle as an illustrious type of Jesus Christ, who 
" remaineth a priest for ever after the order of Mel- 
chizedec." 

But after the call of Moses, and the establishment 
of the Israelites as a distinct people, under the special 
government of God, Aaron was selected as the high 
priest of his profession, and the priesthood was esta- 
blished in his family, on condition of their fidelity, to 
all generations. We have seen, however, that in 
consequence of their departure from the covenant of 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 283 

their God, he forsook them, and poured upon them the 
phials of his holy indignation. This was required 
from the immutability of his character, from his inva- 
riable opposition to sin. 

The same marks of his displeasure were manifested 
toward the Christian priesthood after it became cor- 
rupted by wicked works, and God exercised his pre- 
rogative in selecting such instruments as he saw fit 
to " confound the wisdom of the wise, and to bring to 
naught the understanding of the prudent." 

Indeed from the facts, most awful and admonitory 
in their character, which have been spread before the 
reader in the preceding numbers, it appears that how- 
ever canonically men may be set apart for the work 
of the ministry, under either the old or new dispen- 
sation, they could not escape the just judgment of 
Almighty God, provided their characters were bad and 
their works flagitious. For this cause he rejected the 
family of Eli, and threatened the whole order of the 
Levitical priesthood with a total overthrow. Nay, he 
not only threatened the priesthood with annihilation, so 
far as their official character was concerned, but he 
visited the whole nation of the Jews with a similar 
destruction as a punishment for their rebellion against 
his righteous government. And the same retributive 
justice was afterward shown toward those Christian 
nations who so frequently abused his forbearance. 
Behold the rise, and spread, and establishment of the 
Mohammedan imposture in Asia and Africa, as well 
as in many parts of Europe. Has not the very metro- 
polis of the empire which was subjected to the reign 
of Christianity by Constantine, long since been the 
metropolis of this very pernicious and bloody religion ? 
Constantinople was once the seat and the boast of a 



284 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

Christian bishopric, the incumbents of which looked 
down with haughty contempt upon their rival com- 
petitors. How long since has she groaned under the 
oppression of the successors of Mohammed ! The 
august line of her bishops, of which she once boasted, 
is not only snapped asunder, but the Christian temples 
have been either demolished or changed into mosques 
for the worship of the false prophet — her altars tram- 
pled under foot- — and her priests scattered to the four 
winds of heaven. And in the present state of the 
seven churches of Asia, mentioned in the Apocalypse, 
we may see an awful verification of the prophetic 
threatenings of the Spirit of God, when he spoke " unto 
the churches," by his servant John. Are there no 
warnings for us in these things — in these predictions, 
so awfully verified by events ? Shall we now deceive 
ourselves with the delusive dreams that merely because 
we are in the succession we shall escape the like judg- 
ments ? Did not the Jews, in our Saviour's time, de- 
lade themselves with the same idle pretensions ? "We 
have Abraham to our father, and were never in bond- 
age to any man," was the vain plea by which they 
attempted to fortify themselves against the just rebukes 
of the Son of God. None, indeed, ever pleaded their 
lineal descent with more confidence, and yet more 
fruitlessly — although their plea was founded in truth — 
than these devoted people. And yet they were rejected 
as withered and unfruitful branches, " whose end was 
nigh unto burning." 

Upon the whole, nothing is more evident than this 
— that neither a lineal descent according to the flesh, 
nor a succession according to canonical order, when 
unaccompanied with the requisite moral and spiritual 
qualifications, will constitute a man a minister in God's 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



285 



account, nor exempt him from his malediction, unless 
he repent and turn from his evil ways. 

Think you that God would have sanctioned Luther 
in organizing a new church, as a presbyter in the 
Church of Rome, had he remained wedded to his er- 
rors ? Think you that if he had shut his eyes to the 
light which was poured into his understanding when 
he began to turn over the pages of that New Testa- 
ment which he found in his convent, God would have 
given him the marks of his approbation, simply be- 
cause he had been consecrated a priest according to 
the order of succession ? Let him believe this who 
can. Let him assert it who wishes to render himself 
ridiculous in the estimation of all enlightened and sober 
Protestants."* 

Now if this did not qualify him for a reformer, and 
give him a right to establish a church independently 
of the Romish hierarchy, if he had such qualification 

* A writer in the Churchman, who tells his readers that he is 
a Methodist preacher ! says that if a man is but canonically or- 
dained, however vicious his life, his official acts are valid, and 
cites in proof of his assertion that he had a child baptized by a 
minister who was afterward detected as a wicked character. 
What is the conclusion 1 Therefore his acts were valid ! Though 
the reader may be at a loss to perceive the connection between 
the premises and the conclusion, yet it will follow, I think, that 
if a valid ordination makes the official acts of the incumbent 
valid, then an invalid ordination renders all the acts of the 
incumbent invalid also. This conclusion being legitimate, as 
this DiaconaS) which is his public cognomen, who he tells us 
is a Methodist preacher of some years' standing, has doubtless 
baptized many infants, and not a few adults, during the time he 
unfortunately held his spurious credentials, whenever he shall 
succeed to a reconsecration according to the order of succes- 
sion, will have some arduous duties to perform in retracing his 
steps as a Methodist itinerant, to administer the ordinance again 
to those upon whom he has laid unconsecrated hands, 



286 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

and such right at all, he must have derived them from 
another source. What source was this ? I answer, 
God himself. I say God himself— I mean this in the 
most unqualified sense. Without such a call and 
qualification as is implied in this answer, his conse- 
cration would have been entirely worthless. He would 
still have been an ignorant monk, fit only for his cell, 
qualified to act only as an obedient son of the holy 
mother church, and as a passive instrument in the 
hands of his holiness, the pope of Rome. But be- 
coming obedient to the light of God's truth, which 
shone upon him as he perused the sacred pages, he 
emerged into the liberty of God's children, was inspired 
by God's Spirit to proclaim his truth, and wage a pub- 
lic war against the pope, the devil, and the flesh. And 
as God qualified him to pull down the strong holds of 
popery, so he commanded him, as the results of his 
conduct abundantly demonstrate, to build up a purer 
church, on the holy principles of the gospel. Here 
was the source of his authority. Here was his high 
commission. He was doubtless as much commissioned 
of God to denounce the judgments of heaven against 
the abominations of popery, and to proclaim the eman- 
cipation of the children of men from their degrading 
thraldom, as Moses was to say to Pharaoh, Let my 
people go. And if the bishop's hands had never been 
laid upon his head, nor the pope's breath ever blessed 
him, under those circumstances his authority would 
have been nothing less — his commission equally au- 
thoritative and divine. 

You must allow this, or take the following conse- 
quences — that Luther was commissioned to become a 
reformer, before he was reformed himself — to enlighten 
others before the light ever dawned upon his own 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 287 

mind — and to preach salvation by grace through faith 
in Jesus Christ, while as yet he neither believed nor 
understood any such doctrine ! And why ? Merely 
because he had been consecrated a presbyter in the 
fallen Church of Rome ! If such be your belief I 
must despair of convincing you. You are proof 
against reason, Scripture, and the dictates of common 
sense. If not, then you are no successionist, and, of 
course, must acknowledge that a true minister of Jesus 
Christ derives his authority from God. 

Let us apply the same reasoning to John Wesley. 
Did the simple fact of his being a presbyter of the 
Church of England give him authority and impart to 
him the qualification to become a reformer in that 
church, and finally to establish an independent com- 
munity ? The supposition is absurd in itself. And 
yet most of the objections which are urged against his 
proceedings are founded upon this very supposition. 
Those who object to his organizing a separate church 
in America, look at him simply as an ordinary pres- 
byter in the Church of England, acting under the 
authority alone which he received by his consecration 
to that office; and their objections derive all their 
force from the false presumption that he took upon 
himself the authority to ordain presbyters in and for 
that church, and at last to consecrate a bishop in their 
sense of that term in and for that same communion. 
Nothing can be more erroneous. 

In the first place, the presbyter John Wesley was 
as evidently called of God, in an extraordinary manner, 
to do the work of an evangelist, to reform the nation, 
to revive the pure principles of the gospel, and to be 
the leader and head of a numerous people, as was 
Luther, Calvin, or any other of the reformers. If any 



288 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

were disposed to dispute this, I would point to the man 
himself, to his character and qualifications, to his prin- 
ciples and labors, and, above all, to the astonishing 
results of his evangelical preaching, writing, and other 
exercises of a minister of Jesus Christ. If these do 
not bespeak for him an extraordinary call from God, 
then may we despair of ever finding one among all the 
sons of men. 

What I mean by this extraordinary call is, that he 
was eminently qualified, " above many of his equals" 
in official standing, by mental endowments, by literary 
and scientific attainments, by a deep and genuine ex- 
perience of divine things, by moral and spiritual quali- 
fications — and that he made " full proof of his minis- 
try," by a diligence and activity rarely equalled by 
either contemporaries, predecessors, or followers, in 
every department of ministerial labors — and, last of all, 
that his proceedings in the exercise of all these gifts 
and advantages were accompanied by as evident tokens 
of the divine approbation as can be found in the an- 
nals of the church. He that can impartially read the 
history of the man and his works, and not feel a con- 
viction of this, it seems to me, must be blind to the 
light of evidence, and impervious to the rays of truth. 
The piety of his heart, the purity of his motives, the 
uprightness of his deportment, the acuteness of his 
intellect, the soundness of his judgment, the honesty 
of his intention in embracing the truth as it is in 
Jesus, the boldness and energy with which he pro- 
claimed the unadulterated word of God, and then the 
success, unparalleled in modern times, which attended 
his immense labors — all attest his divine call to the 
" ministry of reconciliation," and proclaim in the ears 
of all impartial judges that he was no ordinary mes- 
senger of God to the churches. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 2S9 

In the second place, he never exercised his office 
to ordain either presbyters or bishops in and for the 
Church of England. This, he well knew, was not 
his province. He also knew equally well that there 
was no call, either from the necessity of the case, or 
from the organization of that church, for him to do any 
such thing. In that church there were regular bishops, 
ready and willing to do their duty in this respect so 
far as regarded their own church. With their func- 
tions, therefore, he presumed not to intermeddle, nor 
did he attempt to disturb the order of their proceed- 
ings. In these respects he remained passive. Bui 
when he became the father, under the blessing of God 
upon his labors, of a numerous family of spiritual 
children, the case and the circumstances were mate- 
rially altered. And though, from a reluctance even 
to seem to intrude upon others' prerogatives, he long 
hesitated in respect to the exercise of those pow- 
ers with which he was conscious the Head of the 
church had invested him for the edification and salva- 
tion of thousands, he was at length impelled from a 
conviction cf duty, to do as he did ; and from the 
authority which God had most evidently given him, 
he stepped forth from his retreat behind the bulwarks 
of the national church, showed himself to the world 
m his true character, as an extraordinary messenger 
of God, ordained, with the assistance of other pres- 
byters of the same church, presbyters, and a bishop 
— not for the Church of England, but for che Me- 
thodist societies in America — not for the Protestant 
Episcopal or any other church in this country, but 
simply for that branch of the church of Christ which 
God had made him the instrument of raising up and 
establishing. In doing this, he neither intruded him- 

13 



290 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST* 

self upon ground preoccupied by others, nor assumed 
powers which did not belong to him, God had most 
evidently given the people to him, and made it his 
indispensable duty to provide for them the ordinances 
of his house. In doing this, therefore, he did but dis- 
charge an obligation which arose out of the relation 
he sustained to the whole Methodist family. And as 
he invaded no man's rights in ordaining a Christian 
ministry for his American children, so no other man 
had any right to interfere with him, either by acting 
in his stead, or by condemning him in the exercise 
of his powers. Those who now plead the right they 
had, or their predecessors in office, to make this 
provision for the Methodist societies, are themselves 
the ivould-be intruders " into other men's labors," and 
interlopers into other men's folds, What right had 
they to interfere in the affairs of a community which 
they never formed ? What right had they to exercise 
a government over a people which had been raised 
up by others, not only without their help, but in op- 
position to their wishes, and even in despite of their 
reproaches and persecutions ? These are questions 
I wish to urge home upon their understandings and 
consciences, because their reproaches have compelled 
us to " become fools in this confidence of boasting." 

Civilians, and writers upon moral science, enumerate 
several sorts of rights. The right of inheritance, of 
possession, of purchase, and the right of conquest, 
The Methodist people were Wesley's, under the bless- 
ing of God upon his labors, in a two-fold sense. 
They had been conquered to the obedience of Christ 
by " the sword of the Spirit," which he and his sons 
in the gospel so successfully wielded, Like others, 
these people were once " alienated from God by 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 291 

wicked works but by the labors of the Wesleyans 
they had " become fellow citizens of the household 
of faith." They therefore belonged to him by con- 
quest. They belonged to him also by lawful posses- 
sion. God had given them to him as his spiritual 
offspring. He therefore had not only a right to pro- 
vide for them as his spiritual children, but it was, as 
I have before said, his bounden duty. He therefore 
possessed rights over the Methodist people w T hich no 
one else did or could, and owed them duties which no 
one else was competent to perform. By what rule 
then of logic — by what law of either God or man, did 
those idle shepherds, who not only looked on with cold 
indifference while this spiritual warfare was success- 
fully going forward, but absolutely threw the weight 
of their influence into the scale of the enemy, and 
joined his standard — by what law, I say, of either 
God or man, did they, or do now any of their advocates 
come forward, and plead their right to interfere in this 
matter ? What right had they to claim this rich in- 
heritance of souls ? Did they assist in conquering 
them to Christ ? No, verily. While Wesley and 
his associates were successfully carrying the war into 
the enemy's country, and winning thousands of 
trophies to Jesus Christ, those idle shepherds were 
barking with the wolves, actually setting them on 
the flock, and shouting for the conquest over it. 
And now when the conquest is so far achieved, the 
victory in part won, and it becomes needful to put a 
fence around the fold, and provide the flock with the 
bread and water of life, these opposers of the work 
come forward, and demand that the whole should have 
been given into their hands ! Wesley and those other 
-men of God, who, amidst toils, watchings, and fastings, 



292 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

privations and persecutions— persecutions from the 
very men who claimed the spoils of the victory — -are 
set down in their calender as schismatics, and intruders 
into the fields of other men's labors ! Now I ask in 
the name of common sense — that common sense 
which discriminates between those rights which ori- 
ginate from a laborious and successful service, and 
those which are claimed under false pretences — I ask 
and appeal to this dictate of every man's unbiassed 
judgment for an answer — which manifests the greatest 
degree of presumption, he who comes forward quietly, 
without noise and pomp, and takes possession of that 
which has thus been given to him by the immortal 
Head of the church, or he who sounds the trumpet 
before him under pretence that he is the rightful lord 
of the soil, brandishes his rusty sword of succession, 
and denounces both father and children, all as without 
the pale of the true church ? Need I pause for 
answer ? Let those answer who, under the profession 
that they are seeking a purer fountain of power and 
authority, are goading their rightful mother with the 
stale slang that they have become dissatisfied with 
their ordination, when it is to be feared that other and 
more interested motives, at least in some instances, 
have moved them to action. On this solemn subject 
there will be "great searchings of heart' 7 in "that day 
for which all other other days were made." 

Now suppose that John Wesley had been nothing 
more than a simple presbyter, and had imitated the 
conduct of the sleepy clergy of his day, manifesting a 
total indifference to the interests of the people, do you 
suppose he would have been justified in establishing 
a separate communion, and of organizing an inde- 
pendent church ? To ask the question is to answer 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



293 



it There would have been no call for any such thing. 
He would have had no people to organize a church 
with. Of course he could have possessed no rights 
over such a people. 

His rights, therefore, were acquired over and above 
those which he possessed simply as a presbyter of the 
Church of England ; and it is on this ground chiefly 
that we place his defence in the exercise of his func- 
tions as an overseer of the flock of Christ. Yet 
allowing that the ordinations of the English Church 
are valid — which I am not disposed to dispute — it 
follows that John Wesley was a validly consecrated 
presb} r ter of the church of Christ, and hence whatever 
powers he derived from this source he retained in- 
violably, for he was never deposed, nor even officially 
censured. As a presbyter, therefore, he had rights 
of which he was never dispossessed. But in addition 
to these he had acquired rights over the people he 
was made the honored and happy instrument of raising 
up, which no other possessed, and therefore had no 
right to exercise. 



NUMBER XXIII. 

Objections— God ; s ordinary method of working — Wesley had an 
extraordinary call, by the Holy Spirit — This is essential to all 
ministers — Proved from various considerations — Objections to this 
view obviated — Methodism arose from necessity — Anecdote — 
Fault of the established clergy — This created Methodism — Con- 
clusion of this branch of the subject. 

Against the views w r hich have been expressed in 
my last number, it will probably be objected by some, 
that it is enthusiastic to expect now, in these modern 



294 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

times, any such extraordinary call from God as has 
been supposed in the case of Luther and Wesley. 
But I think I shall be able to show that this objection 
is founded upon an erroneous view of the dispensa- 
tions of God. 

In one sense, I allow, there is nothing extraordinary 
in the call and qualifications of either Luther or 
Wesley. God's ordinary method is to work by 
means, and to save mankind by the instrumentality 
of men inspired and sent by him for that purpose. The 
history of his manner of working confirms the truth 
of this remark. He sent Moses to be the deliverer 
of Israel, and afterward, throughout the whole of that 
dispensation, warned and instructed the people by 
prophets and teachers, " rising up early and sending 
them." The same procedure was observed in the 
opening and establishment of the gospel dispensation, 
and all the subsequent revivals of religion down to the 
present day have been promoted in the same way. 
This, therefore, is his usual, his ordinary method of 
working, to instruct and save men by "men of like 
passions with themselves." In this respect there was 
nothing extraordinary in God's calling Luther to reform 
the church from the errors of popery, nor in his calling 
Wesley to save the people from the dead formality 
into which Protestants had generally fallen. In these 
things we perceive the same procedure as has ever 
distinguished God's manner of working with the 
children of men in all ages. 

But while we acknowledge this, it must be con- 
fessed that he has made, and no doubt will continue 
to make, a display of his sovereignty and the energies 
of his grace and Spirit, in calling men in an extraor- 
dinary way, and while they yield a willing obedience 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 295 

to his call, of endowing them with more than common 
discernment, courage, and energy of character, as in- 
struments to accomplish his purposes of benevolence 
to the children of men. Such a call, I believe, had 
both Luther and Wesley, as well as many others who 
have been raised up at various times. 

But the whole weight of this objection rests on the 
erroneous presumption that God does not now, as 
formerly, call men by his Spirit and the indications of 
his providence to do his work. It is, in fact, a virtual 
denial of all direct divine agency in the affairs of men, 
and supposes them left to be managed merely by 
human wisdom and human might. And what is 
this but a species of veiled infidelity ? Is it any 
thing short of excluding God from the government of 
the world, any farther than merely by a blind super- 
intendence of the laws which he stamped upon his 
works when he brought them into existence ? The 
objection, indeed, is of the same family with those 
which deny the direct agency of the Holy Spirit in 
regeneration, and in witnessing to the believer his 
adoption into the family of God. 

Let us therefore examine it a little, and see whether 
it have any foundation in truth. In the first place, 
it is contradicted by all those Protestants whose for- 
mularies I have examined which are used in the in- 
duction of candidates in the ministry. This ques- 
tion, either in form or substance, is asked of all such 
candidates :— 

" Do you think you are moved by the Holy Ghost 
to t.ake upon you this office ?" 

This question certainly supposes, not only that a 
man is moved by the Holy Spirit to become a minister 
of the Lord Jesus, but that he is so moved that he is 



296 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

conscious of it — that he has an evidence satisfactory 
to himself, and ■that he gives evidence to others that 
he has been called by the Holy Spirit to this sacred 
work. This, therefore, is supposed to be the common 
privilege of all true ministers of the sanctuary. In- 
deed, if a man cannot belong to Christ, as one of his 
children, without having the Spirit of Christ, much 
less can he be his minister unless he have that self- 
same Spirit. He must not only have this Spirit in its 
ordinary influences upon his heart in common with all 
other Christians, but the Spirit is supposed to move 
him especially to this holy work, so that the person is 
fully satisfied that he is moving in obedience to God's 
will. 

I do not mean to assert that God miraculously 
qualifies men for such a work. In this, as in all his 
other dispensations, he adapts means to ends, uses 
men as willing and obedient instruments to his w T ill, 
and selects such as are qualified in an ordinary way 
by natural endowments, by a studious attention to their 
duty, by which means their minds have been properly 
disciplined, and expanded with enlarged and compre- 
hensive views of God's character and ways. These 
men, being thus prepared by a proper attention to the 
ordinary duties of their station, first embracing the 
truth as it is in Jesus, having their hearts fired and 
filled with love to God and man, usually become, 
under the influence of that eternal Spirit which giveth 
understanding to the simple, instruments of great good 
to mankind, provided they are obedient " to the hea- 
venly call," Such were Luther and Wesley, and 
many others who might be mentioned. And they 
afforded all the evidence of their call from God, not 
by the performance of miracles similar to those which 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



297 



accompanied the ushering in and establishment of the 
gospel dispensation, for these were no longer neces- 
sary, but of that supernatural influence which is 
essential to the awakening and conversion of a world 
of sinners. 

Those who deny this supernatural influence, as I 
before intimated, exclude the agency of God from the 
great work of man's salvation. They do, in effect, 
attribute to man the power of his own salvation. And 
they moreover suppose that a minister of Jesus Christ 
is armed with nothing more than " enticing words of 
man's wisdom'' — nothing more than the power of 
human persuasion — when he goes out upon the war- 
fare of conquering the world to Christ. It is in fact 
denying the whole doctrine of the divine influence in 
illuminating the understanding, and changing the heart, 
and intimating particular duties to men, as well as 
excluding those providential indications which are so 
evidentally manifested toward all God's servants. 
And all this is but a disguised infidelity, as remote 
from the doctrines of the Bible and the genius of 
Christianity as the Koran is to the truth of God. 
This modern species of skepticism had no existence 
in the minds of the reformers. In all their writings, 
particularly in those of Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, 
Knox, Cranmer, and other eminent men of their dav, 
who arose under the quickening influence of God's 
Spirit to stem the torrent of iniquity, and to roll back 
the mighty flood of error from the church, the neces- 
sity of the eternal Spirit was most strenuously insisted 
upon, as indispensable to constitute a man a true 
Christian, and more especially to qualify him for a 
competent minister of Jesus Christ. They knew well 
that in this their strength consisted. 



298 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

It is indeed this which constitutes the living 
ministry of Jesus Christ. All the human learning, in 
the universe, were it grafted upon the most expanded 
human intellect, will not qualify a man who is desti- 
tute of the Spirit of God to be an evangelical minister. 
He may, it is true, talk eloquently in favor of Christi- 
anity, discourse learnedly and orthodoxly on its doc- 
trines, and even expound the Scriptures in an accurate 
manner ; but unless his heart has been sealed by the 
Spirit of God, and he himself has been called to this 
work, and led forward in it by that self-same Spirit, 
he is but a " blind leader of the blind," and both he 
and his hearers will " fall into the ditch" of error 
together ; and if, by the abounding mercy of God, 
they be saved at all, it " will be so as by fire." 

What has proved a greater curse to the church 
than an unsanctified, a dead ministry? And what is 
a dead ministry, but such as is made of men " destitute 
of the Spirit." This, wherever it has existed, has 
always rested as a withering incubus upon the church, 
and prevented the revival and spread of true godli- 
ness. The necessity, therefore, of a living and spi- 
ritual ministry, should be insisted upon as essential 
to the interests of true religion, and as constituting the 
prime qualification of all those who attempt to instruct 
mankind in the important concerns of eternity. This 
is what w r e a$k in behalf of all, however humble the 
sphere in which they move, who profess to be the 
ministers of the Lord Jesus. 

Now what I contend for is, that John Wesley fur- 
nished every Scriptural and rational evidence which 
should be demanded in favor of such a call. He 
brought all his great learning, his scientific attainments, 
his outward call to the ministry, and laid them at the 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



299 



feet of Jesus Christ, making himself the " man of one 
book,*' the book of God, and confessing his entire de- 
pendence on the " Spirit of truth," for " every good 
and perfect gift." And in the diligent and consci- 
entious exercise of these advantages and gifts, he 
walked forth under the directions of that divine Pro- 
vidence which ever watches over the affairs of men, 
particularly of his church, and furnished the most in- 
dubitable proofs that he was commissioned from God 
to declare his counsel unto the people — to explain, 
enforce, and defend the truths of his word. As a 
simple presbyter in the Church of England, destitute 
of these advantages, and of this divine call to his work, 
he might have remained, like thousands of others, 
fellow presbyters, in obscurity, never known beyond 
the precincts of his parish, or if known at all, only to 
his and the church's disgrace. It was not, therefore, 
the credentials which he received from the archbishop 
of Canterbury which gave him either his qualification 
or his commission ; but it was most evidently his 
other endowments, his designation to this work by the 
Head of the church, and the influence of the Holy 
Spirit. These were his credentials. On these his 
claims are rested. 

But I have said enough upon this head. Another 
objection which I anticipate, and will endeavor to 
obviate, is this — It may be said by some, that if this 
be indeed so, then every man who is moved by the 
Holy Spirit to take upon him the sacred office, may 
set up for a reformer, may become the head of a sect, 
and may consecrate others to the work of the ministry. 
This, however, by no means follows. 

In the first place, to entitle him to this distinction, 
he must make out a similar case of necessity to 



300 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

that which existed in the days of Luther and of 
Wesley. 

Secondly, he must furnish similar evidences of his 
call and qualifications for such a work. A man may 
be called of God to labor in a certain sphere, and yet 
never called of him to step out of the ordinary path, 
as those two eminent men were, to do an extraordinary 
work. 

In the third place, he must produce similar fruits 
of his ministry, as evidences of his divine call to such 
a peculiar work. Let these same evidences meet in 
any individual, under similar circumstances, and we 
will recognize him in a similar character, but not till 
then. 

But to all the arguments which have been derived 
from the necessity of the case, and from the call and 
qualifications of Wesley for the peculiar work in which 
he was engaged, it may be still urged as an objection, 
that evangelical light has increased in the various 
churches, and therefore there was no need of a sepa- 
rate organization. 

This objection takes for granted that this increase 
of light, and zeal, and effort, has been brought about 
independently of Methodism : whereas the truth is that 
it has resulted, under the blessing of God upon its 
labors, from this very Methodism against which its 
enemies array themselves. Any and every impartial 
man who is at all acquainted with the history of events 
for a century past, must be convinced of this. What 
indeed was the state of the Christian world when John 
Wesley commenced his ministerial career ? The 
distinctive doctrines of the gospel, the atonement by 
Jesus Christ, justification by faith in him, the new 
birth, and the witness and fruit of the Spirit, were 



AN" ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



301 



nearly banished from the pulpits; while practical god- 
liness was laid aside for a mere fashionable round of 
pleasures, and if religion became the theme of con- 
versation at all, it was a religion which conformed to 
the spirit and maxims of the world. A reformation 
in this respect, I grant, has been effected, and I rejoice 
to record the fact that it has not been confined to the 
Methodists ; it has spread less or more among all de- 
nominations ; but it has been the radiations of Metho- 
dism ; and therefore, instead of its being an argument 
against the system, is one of the most powerful proofs 
in its favor. God hath, in this respect, if our enemies 
will have it so, " chosen the foolish things of the 
world to confound the w r ise, and things that were not, 
to bring to naught the things that were/' As the 
regular clergy would not do his work, God raised up 
those that would. As they threw the w r eight of their 
influence into the scale of those who " had the form 
of godliness, but denied the pow r er thereof," God, in 
mercy to the world, called others whose preaching 
was not in word only, but in power, and in much 
assurance, and in the Holy Ghost." Through the 
indefatigable labors of these men, so much despised 
and persecuted, and even condemned as intruders into 
the field of labor, Scriptural light and knowledge, 
experimental and practical godliness, have been widely 
diffused among all orders, and all denominations of 
Christians ; and, thanks to the God of love, this gra- 
cious work is still spreading, and I humbly trust will 
continue to spread " until the ends of the earth shall 
see the salvation of our God," and " all nations shall 
come and worship before him." 

Hence these facts, so far from being a ground of 
objection against our proceedings, are a reason wkv 



302 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

we should continue to press forward in the use of 
those means which God has so signally owned and 
blessed to the salvation of souls. 

Methodism arose from the necessity of the times. 
Had the regular clergy, the bishops, and others in the 
establishment, done their duty, lived and preached ac- 
cording to the letter and spirit of their own articles of 
religion, and the pious and holy sentiments breathed 
in their formularies of devotion, there had been no 
necessity for the institution of Methodism, and John 
Wesley had never been known otherwise than as a 
faithful coadjutor among his fellow presbyters of equal 
talents and zeal, striving with them for the " faith of 
the gospel." If, therefore, there were anything irre- 
gular in the proceedings of Wesley and his associates, 
the fault was not in them, but in those who, by their 
neglect of their duty, made it necessary for them to do 
as they did, to save sinners from perdition. This is 
finely illustrated by the following anecdote of Mr. 
Charles Wesley and Archbishop Robinson, primate 
of Ireland. Being at the Hot-wells, near Bristol, he 
met Mr. C. Wesley in the pump room. After some 
time, the archbishop observed, 

" Mr. Wesley, you must be sensible that I have 
heard many things of you and your brother ; but I 
have not believed them. I knew you better. But 
one thing has always surprised me, — your employing 
laymen. 

C. Wesley. — It is your fault, my lord. 
Archbishop. — My fault, Mr. Wesley ? 
C. Wesley. — Yes, my lord, yours and your bre- 
thren. 

Archbishop. — How so, sir ? 

C. Wesley. — Why, my lord, you hold your peace? 
and the stones cry out, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 303 

They took a turn in silence. His grace, however, 
rallied : 

Archbishop, — But I hear they are unlearned men. 

C. Wesley. — Very true, my lord ; in general they 
are so : so the dumb ass rebukes the prophet" 

His grace immediately turned the conversation. 

And well he might, for a pertinent reply was im- 
possible. 

It was, therefore, the fault of the clergy that ren- 
dered the doings of Wesley necessary, and which 
furnishes us with an unanswerable argument in his 
defence. Had they, with the bishops at their head, 
as I before remarked, possessed the spirit of piety so 
plainly inculcated in their daily prayers, and preached 
the doctrines of their church in power and purity, 
there had been no call for the machinery of Method- 
ism to rouse the world from its spiritual lethargy. 

Similar remarks will apply to the state of things in 
this country. According to the testimony of Bishop 
White, and others I have before quoted, there was a 
great deficiency in vital piety here, both among the 
clergy and the laity. And that the labors of the 
Methodist ministry contributed to arouse them from 
their lethargy, and to awaken a spirit of evangelical 
zeal, which has exerted a most salutary influence 
upon the American churches, who will deny ? " This 
is the Lord's work, and it is marvellous in our eyes." 



304 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



NUMBER XXIV. 

Three orders in the ministry recognized — In what sense — Order 
of deacons— Term of office — Manner in which these were first 
chosen — They were ministers of the word — Assistants to the apos- 
tles in the distribution of the common stock of the church and in 
preaching — Their qualifications a proof of this— Sermon and 
martyrdom of Stephen — This took place after his consecration — 
Philip's preaching and miracles — This a proof of the above posi- 
tion — The same proved from 1 Tim. i 13 — Also by quotations 
from Polycarp and Ignatius, and from Mosheim — These deacons 
not mere laymen — They baptized and assisted at the eucharist — 
Their prescribed duties — Summary view of the whole subject 
submitted to the reader. 

Before I proceed farther, I wish to present the 
reader with our view of another officer in the church, 
denominated deacon. It will be perceived that we 
have all along recognized three orders in the ministry, 
deacons, elders or presbyters, and superintendents or 
bishops, without, however, supposing that this third 
order in the ministry is essential to the existence and 
vitality of the church. It is sufficient for our purpose 
to have shown that this organization is allowable on 
Christian principles — that it does not contravene any 
established or known precept of Christ— nor yet de- 
rogate from the honor and order of the Christian 
ministry. In this particular we differ from the Pro- 
testant Episcopalians, and approximate nearer, in re- 
spect to the power of ordination, to the Presbyterians, 
while, as it respects the power of jurisdiction, we 
again form nearly a parallel line with the former. 

There is, however, one particular in which we 
differ more from the Presbyterians than we do from 
the Protestant Episcopalians — I mean in respect to 
the order in the Christian ministry denominated dea- 
cons. Without, however, entering into any length- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



305 



ened controversy with those who may dissent from 
us on this item of church order, I shall proceed to 
state what appears to me to be the scriptural and 
apostolic theory and practice upon this subject. 

It is admitted, I believe, on all hands, that there 
were what were called Aiclxovol, (deacons) in the pri- 
mitive church, and that this was a term of official 
designation ; but it is a subject of some dispute whe- 
ther it represented mere laymen appointed to take 
charge of the alms of the church, to search out and 
relieve the sick and the poor, or whether, in addition 
to these duties, they were regular ministers of the 
word. As a church we have adopted the latter 
opinion, for the following reasons : — 

1. The sacred Scriptures, as it appears to me, 
most evidently favor this opinion. In Acts vi. 1—6, 
we have an account of the seven deacons* who were 

* I have frequently had occasion to notice that those terms 
of office used by the New Testament writers to designate the 
ministers of the Christian church, were borrowed from the 
Jewish Scriptures, and hence came to have a fixed and techni- 
cal meaning, somewhat different from that which was affixed to 
them before. The following remarks in reference to this sub- 
ject are taken from Dr. Adam Clarke's note on Acts vi, 4. 

" The office of deacon, dianovoc, came to the Christian from 
the Jewish church. Every synagogue had at least three dea- 
cojis, which were called D'Dp.S, parnasim. from Dj12 3 fafnas, 
to feed, nourish^ support, govern. The D^D parnas or deacon, 
was a sort of judge in the synagogue, and in each, doctrine and 
■wisdom were required, that they might be able to discern and 
give right judgment in things both sacred and civil. The jin 
chazan, and }ffOV3 shamash, were also a sort of deacons. The 
first was the priest's deputy, and the last was, in some cases, 
the deputy of this deputy, or the sub-deacon. In the New 7 
Testament the apostles are called deacons, 2 Cor. vi, 4 ; Eph. 
iii, 7 ; Col. i, 23 : see also 2 Cor. xi, 15. Christ himself, the 
Shepherd and Bishop of souls, is called the deacon of the cir- 



306 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



chosen by the church, and then presented to the 
apostles that they might be consecrated for their 
special and sacred work. If any man say that these 
were set apart for the purpose of serving tables, 
let him remember that it was a sort of service to 
which the apostles had devoted themselves until 
now, and therefore it could not have been incompatible 
with the ministerial or even apostolic office, and 
hence this objection makes nothing against the sup- 
position that these deacons were also preachers of the 
gospel. 

The qualifications which the apostles required of 
those who should be chosen to this work, are such as 
plainly indicate that they were designed for the minis- 
try of the word, as well as for this special service of 
distributing the alms of the church among the poor 
widows. It seems that the labors of the public 
ministry had so accumulated on the hands of the 
apostles, that the equitable distribution of the property 
which had been placed at their feet as common stock, 

cumcision, T^eyu 6e XpLcrov Iqciovv Sianovov yeyevTj&dai. 7reptT0jU7jc, 
Rom. xv, 8. As the word implies to minister or serve, it was 
variously applied, and pointed out all those who were employed 
in helping the bodies or souls of men ; whether apostles, bish- 
ops, or those whom we call deacons. Some remark that there 
were hvo orders of deacons : 1. Aiatcovoi rr/c Tpans^c^ Deacons 
of tlie table, whose business it was to take care of the alms 
collected in the church, and distribute them among the poor, 
widows, Sic. 2. AiaKovot rov loyov, Deacons of the word, 
whose business it was to preach and variously instruct the 
people. It seems that after the persecution raised against the 
apostolic church, in consequence of which they became dis- 
persed, the deaconship of tables ceased, as did also the commu- 
nity of goods ; and Philip, who was one of those deacons, who 
at first served tables, betook himself entirely to preaching 
the word." 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



307 



and was hence at their disposal, required more time 
and care than they could devote to it ; and hence they 
requested the brethren to relieve them of this burden, 
by looking out from among themselves " seven men of 
honest report, full of the holy ghost and wisdom, 
whom we," said the apostles, " may appoint over this 
business." 

Mark these requisite qualifications. They were to 
be, 1. Men of honest report, that they might not be 
suspected of partiality, or as being actuated by a cri- 
minal selfishness, in taking charge of the temporalities 
of the church, and in their distribution among the 
dependent widows. 2. That they might be able 
ministers of the word of God, and thus assist the 
apostles also in the great work of saving souls, they 
were to be men full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, 
Surely this w r as a qualification not essential to enable 
them equitably to divide temporal goods merely among 
the poor, provided they were of honest report and of 
a sound judgment ; but to enable them to understand 
and " rightly to divide the word of truth," so as to give 
" to every one his portion of meat in due season," it 
was necessary that they should have the " spirit of 
wisdom and of a sound mind." 

Having devolved this duty upon the church, the 
apostles could now give themselves, " continually to 
prayer, and to the ministry of the word." These men 
having been selected by the disciples, and " set before 
the apostles," when the latter "had prayed, they laid 
their hands upon them — thus consecrating them, ac- 
cording to the primitive custom, by prayer and impo- 
sition of hands, to the sacred work to which they had 
been, in this orderly and regular manner, chosen and 
called. 



308 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

Among them thus set apart, were Stephen and 
Philip. And as evidence that they were included 
among the authorized expounders and preachers of 
God's word, in the very next chapter, we have an 
account of that most admirable, powerful, and pungent 
discourse which Stephen, being " full of faith and the 
Holy Ghost," delivered unto the Jews, in defence of 
that commission by virtue of which he " did great 
wonders and miracles among the people," ch. vi, 8. 
These mighty works, and this able defence, followed 
immediately after his consecration to the work of the 
ministry, and for doing which, he so enraged the Jews, 
that he fell under their revengeful disposition a 
martyr to the truth. However much, therefore, he 
might have devoted himself to the service of the poor 
widows " in the daily ministrations," he most assuredly 
fulfilled the ministry of the word as emphatically as 
did the apostles themselves ; and it is no small proof 
of the orderly manner in which these first Christian 
ministers were inducted into their office by prayer and 
imposition of hands, before they ventured to show 
themselves as public advocates of God's truth, that 
we nowhere read of Stephen's preaching until after 
that ceremony had been performed upon him. He 
was first selected by the church, then approved by the 
apostles, and after that we read that, being " full of 
faith and power," he did great wonders and miracles 
among the people ; vindicated his doctrine and con- 
duct before his malevolent accusers — in doing which, 
he charged home upon their consciences their own un- 
belief and stubbornness — and finally sealed his power- 
ful testimony with his own blood. A severe reproof 
this to those aspirants who take upon themselves this 
sacred work, not only independently of the constituted 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 309 

authorities of the church, but sometimes in open con- 
tempt of their solemn advice to the contrary. 

Another evidence in support of the fact that these 
primitive deacons were ministers of Jesus Christ, is 
found in Philip, who was another of the seven deacons 
mentioned in this passage. In chap, viii, 4, 5, we 
read that among those who "were scattered abroad" 
on account of the persecution which raged against the 
disciples at Jerusalem, and who " went everywhere 
preaching the word,"' Philip was included, and it is 
added, that he " went down to Samaria, and preached 
Christ unto them." And as a proof that he also was 
commissioned by the Head of the church to proclaim 
the glad tidings of salvation, it is recorded that " the 
people with one accord gave heed unto those things 
which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles 
which he did. For many unclean spirits, crying with 
a loud voice, came out of many that were possessed 
with them : and many taken with palsies, and that 
were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in 
that city." Here was a visible and an ocular demon- 
stration that Philip, no less than Stephen, had been 
" endued with power from on high," and was fully 
commissioned, both by God and his church, to go forth 
into the world as his ambassador, and that he gave 
" full proof of his ministry" by the words which he 
spake, and the miracles which he wrought. And yet 
Philip was one of the deacons which had been set 
apart to 64 serve tables," so far as to distribute the 
bounties of the church to the suffering poor. What 
greater proof should we require that those deacons 
were regular preachers of God's word ? Yet they 
were not elders or presbyters. They were, there- 
fore, an inferior order in the ministry — which proves 



310 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

that those err who confine themselves to one order 
only. This will appear farther manifest from con- 
sulting 1 Tim. iii, 1-13. In the first part of this 
chapter, the apostle is drawing the character and 
giving the qualifications of a bishop, elder or presby- 
ter — most evidently using these as convertible terms, 
descriptive of either their order or office — and then 
proceeds to notice the characteristics of the deacons 
as another and distinct grade of ministers. This 
proves that they were not of the same order with the 
elders, but were inferior to them. That they were 
ministers of the word is manifest from what the 
apostle says, ver. 10—13. After telling Timothy that 
before a man is exalted to the office of a deacon, he 
must " first be proved," he adds, " they that have used 
the office of a deacon well, purchase to themselves a 
good degree, and great boldness," (or great liberty of 
speech, as the words nollrjv nappaaiav may be rendered,) 
" in the faith which is in Jesus." Those deacons in 
the church who used their office well, as ministers of 
the word, thereby purchased to themselves a good 
degree, and had become fitted to the more exalted and 
responsible station of elder or bishop. They were 
now no longer obliged to attend, in connection with 
their office as preachers of the gospel, to the bodily 
wants of the poor, but they had the privilege of de- 
voting themselves exclusively and entirely to the 
spiritual interests of the church. And thus we find, 
that Philip had so fulfilled his office as a deacon, that 
he became, as appears from several notices of him in 
the Acts of the Apostles, an itinerating evangelist. 
See chap, xxi, 8. These are the Scriptural autho- 
rities in favor of the opinion that the primitive deacons 
were preachers of God's word. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST, 311 

2. The writings of some of the primitive fathers 
sustain the same view of the character and office of 
these deacons. Thus Poly carp writes to the Philip- 
pians : " Let the deacons be blameless in his sight, as 
the ministers of God in Christ, and not of men ; not evil 
speakers, nor double tongued, nor lovers of money ; but 
compassionate, careful, diligent, temperate in all things, 
walking according to the truth of the Lord." Here the 
deacons are most evidently recognized as ministers of 
Jesus Christ, and not merely u of men," set apart for the 
purpose of serving tables only. Equally express are the 
w r ords of Ignatius, who distinguishes between the order 
of deacons and bishops, without mentioning an inter- 
mediate order denominated presbyters. Writing to the 
Ephesians, he says, " Concerning my fellow-servant, 
Burrahs, according to the will of God, your deacon, 
I pray that he may remain to the honor of your bishop" 
And in his epistle to the Magnesians, after mentioning 
the presbyters and bishops, the latter as occupying an 
official standing over the former, to whom the general 
oversight of the church was intrusted, he says, " And 
your deacons, most dear to me, being intrusted with 
the ministry of Jesus Christ." In his epistle to the 
Trallians. he also most evidently recognizes them as 
an order of ministers. He says, " The deacons also, 
as being the ministers of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, 
must, by all means, please all : for they are not the 
ministers of meat and drink, but of the church of God. 
Therefore, they must avoid all offences, as they would 
fire." To the Philadelphians, he remarks, " As con- 
cerning Philo, the deacon of Cilicia, he still ministers 
unto me in the word of God" To the Smyrnians, he 
uses the following language, which can be interpreted 
only as expressive of the same sentiment, namely, that 



312 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

these deacons were truly and properly the ministers 
of Jesus Christ — " Ye have done well in that ye have 
received Philo and Rheus, who followed me for the 
word of God, the deacons of Christ our God." 

To this opinion agrees that of Mosheim, who says, 
" The church was, undoubtedly, provided from the 
beginning with inferior ministers or deacons. No 
society can be without its servants, and still less such 
societies as those of the first Christians were. And it 
appears not only probable, but evident, that the young 
men, who carried away the dead bodies of Ananias 
and Sapphira, were the subordinate ministers or dea- 
cons of the church at Jerusalem, who attended the 
apostles to execute their orders." This opinion con- 
cerning these young men being designated as such in 
their official character, the learned historian sustains 
in a very ingenious and solid manner, by a reference 
to several passages of sacred Scripture, which the 
reader may consult at his leisure. 

From all these quotations, both from the word of 
God and the primitive fathers- — as well as from 
Mosheim, who derived his opinion from the same 
sources — it appears most evident that those deno- 
minated deacons, were not mere lay members of the 
church, selected for the sole purpose of attending to 
its temporalities ; but that they were regular ministers 
of the gospel, consecrated for that work by prayer and 
imposition of hands ; and moreover, that they, as such, 
were authorized to administer the ordinance of bap- 
tism, and no doubt, also to assist in the distribution 
of the elements of the holy eucharist. Allowing the 
soundness of this conclusion, it will follow that those 
churches which admit of no distinction in ministerial 
order, but reduce all to a level, have departed from the 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 313 

apostolic model. In their intemperate zeal against 
episcopacy, which broke out with such violence among 
the Independents of England in the days of the 
Stuarts, they seem to have run into the opposite 
extreme, by introducing a perfect parity of ministerial 
order, as well as of jurisdiction, and thus have im- 
paired that beautiful symmetry which we behold in the 
orders, powers, and harmonious subordination of the 
several grades of officers in the primitive church. 

It was said above that these deacons were author- 
ized to administer the ordinance of baptism. This is 
evident from Acts viii, 12, where it is said that those 
who " believed Philip," — one of the seven deacons 
who had been consecrated to this work by the apos 
ties, — " preaching the things concerning the kingdom 
of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, were baptized, 
both men and women." And that they were baptized 
by Philip, is inferrable from the fact that none of 
the apostles were present at the time, for we read in 
verse 14, " When the apostles heard that Samaria 
had received the word of God, they sent unto them 
Peter and John." These young Samaritan converts 
were not therefore baptized by the apostles, but by 
Philip the deacon. In this same chapter, verse 26— 
29, we have an account of the conversion of the 
Ethiopian eunuch, who was also baptized by Philip, 
on his professing to " believe that Jesus Christ is the 
Son of God." 

It appears also from the Apology of Justin Martyr, 
that the deacons, under the direction of the bishop or 
chief administrator, after the act of consecration, dis- 
tributed the bread and wine of the eucharist to the 
members of the church, and likewise carried it to 

14 



314 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

those who, by reason of sickness or infirmity, were 
not able to be present in their solemn assemblies. 

It is doubtless from these authorities that the Eng- 
lish, Protestant Episcopal, and Methodist Episcopal 
Churches, all of whom recognize this first order in 
the Christian ministry, have prescribed the following 
as the duties of a deacon :— 

" It appertaineth to the office of a deacon to assist 
the elder in divine service. And especially, when 
he ministereth the holy communion, to help in the 
distribution thereof, and to read and expound the Holy 
Scriptures ; to instruct the youth, and, in the absence 
of the elder, to baptize. And further, it is his office 
to search for the sick, poor, and impotent, that they 
may be visited and relieved." 

And in that section of our discipline which speaks 
of the duties of a travelling deacon, it is said that he 
is, " 1st. To baptize and perform the office of matri- 
mony> in the absence of an elder. 2d. To assist 
the elder in administering the Lord's supper. 3d. To 
do all the duties of a travelling preacher." 

This conformity, in respect to the prescribed duties 
of a deacon, to the foregoing authorities, must con- 
vince any one not biased by prejudice, that we have 
abundant authority for recognizing this order in the 
Christian ministry, as well as for the duties which are 
assigned him. If any more were necessary, it might 
be found in the uniform and undeviating practice of 
the church, from its establishment down to the period 
when conflicting opinions began to operate among the 
Protestants, who, in order to avoid as much as pos- 
sible all the aspects of popery, laid aside many things 
which were most evidently sanctioned by the usages 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 315 

of the primitive church, and, among others, that of 
travelling deacons in the church of God. 

I will now endeavor to sum up the whole subject 
in a few words. 

1. We have seen above, from St. Paul's instruc- 
tions to Timothy, that a man must be first proved 
before he be put into the office of a deacon. To this 
inspired injunction it is our endeavor to conform. 
Whenever a young man thinks himself called of God 
to the ministry, among us, he receives a license, if 
thought worthy, from the authority of his brethren of 
the quarterly meeting conference, — having been first 
recommended by the class to which he belongs, or by 
a leaders' meeting, to exercise his gifts as a local 
preacher. If in this sphere he give satisfactory evi- 
dence of his call to, and qualification for this work, 
and he thinks it his duty to enter the travelling minis- 
try, he makes application to an annual conference, by 
whom, if approved, he is received on trial, and by the 
presiding bishop is placed on a circuit under the over- 
sight of a deacon or elder. In the meantime he is 
directed to a course of reading and study suited to a 
candidate for the ministry. After having pursued this 
course for two years, studying and preaching, and 
performing the other duties of a travelling preacher, 
if then approved by his brethren, he is received as a 
member of an annual conference, elected and ordained 
a deacon. In this way he is proved for two years. 
If he still persevere in his work, using the office of a 
deacon well, for two years more, he is considered to 
have purchased to himself a good, degree in the 
ministry, and may be elected and ordained an elder, 

2. In the foregoing numbers, we have seen that 
the order of elders, bishops, or presbyters, existed in 



316 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

the primitive church, to whom, under the general 
superintendence of the apostles and evangelists, the 
principal government of the church was committed. 
I need hardly inform the reader that this order of 
ministers is recognized in our church, and that to 
them is committed, under a similar oversight, the 
chief government of the church. 

3. We have also seen that from among this order of 
ministers there were selected those to whom, on some 
occasions, a special and more extended jurisdiction 
was given. So also on our circuits, a special over- 
sight is given to one of our elders, and on districts a 
more extended jurisdiction is intrusted to an elder, 
without creating either the one or the other into a 
higher order. For the time being he has an official 
jurisdiction over men of the same order and rank in 
the ministry, both travelling and local, as well as over 
the people generally. Here is an illustration of the 
primitive usage which led to the promiscuous appli- 
cation of the terms presbyter, bishop, president, and 
senior, to the same order of ministers. 

4. In the primitive days, it has appeared evident 
that over the whole church the apostles, and in their 
absence, as well as after their death, the itinerating 
evangelists, exercised a general jurisdiction over the 
whole church— though whether they were consecrated 
a third time for this special service, is more than we 
have been able to prove. This special oversight 
and more extended jurisdiction we see exemplified in 
those officers in our church whom we denominate, for 
distinction's sake, bishops or superintendents : and 
though they are consecrated especially for this ser- 
vice, and, as we believe, exert a beneficial influence 
over the entire body, we do not think the order 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 317 

essential to the existence and integrity of a true 
church of Christ. 

With this brief analysis of the orders and func- 
tions of our ministry, together with its analogy to the 
primitive organization and government, the whole 
subject is submitted to the calm consideration of the 
reader. If, after weighing the preceding testimonies 
and arguments in favor of the order and organization 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he shall think it 
is allowable on Scriptural ground, let him pray the 
Father of lights to send down upon us more abun- 
dantly of his Holy Spirit, that the work of salvation 
may be carried on by this instrumentality, to the ends 
of the earth. If, on the other hand, after a prayerful 
examination he shall think that w T e are in error, let 
him labor, in the spirit of brotherly love, to convince 
us, and he shall receive our thanks, and an effort 
shall be made to rectify whatever may be found 
amiss either in theory or practice. 



NUMBER XXY. 

Mr, Wesley fully justified in his proceedings — Evangelical light 
increased and increasing — Apology for the discussion — Confirma- 
tion as practised in the Protestant Episcopal Church not Scrip- 
tural—Those Scriptures examined which speak of confirmation— 
An appendage of baptism, proved, first from Scripture, secondly, 
from the fathers — True doctrine of confirmation explained — A 
third order not inferrable from confirmation — Spiritual regenera- 
tion essential — Dangerous tendency of confirmation as practised 
in the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

Enough has been said to justify Mr. Wesley, and 
those associated with him, in the organization of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. And until the testi- 
mony which has been adduced shall be set aside as 



318 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

incompetent to support the postulatum which has been 
assumed as true, and the arguments derived therefrom 
are shown to be inconclusive, we shall rest in the hope 
that no dogmatical assertions will hereafter frighten 
weak minds from their hold of truth, or furnish the 
selfish with an apology for a gratification of their rul- 
ing propensity. 

That evangelical light and truth, and that " love 
which casteth out fear," have much increased, and are 
still increasing in the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
is a truth which I delight to acknowledge ; and if I 
have any prepossessions in favor of any one denomi- 
nation more than another, they preponderate toward 
them, always excepting, as a matter of course, our 
own. This being the fact, it has been with no little 
reluctance that I have felt myself impelled from a re- 
gard to truth, and to the injured rights of a large de- 
nomination of Christians, to enter into this discussion, 
in order to maintain what I believe to be their privi- 
leges and immunities, as one of the branches of the 
church of Jesus Christ. I could, therefore, have no 
wish, nurtured and educated as I was in my youth 
in the bosom of that Church, and still retaining a 
grateful remembrance of the early lessons received 
from her catechism, and an attendance upon her 
w r orship, to lay aught to her charge which would, in 
the least degree, weaken her influence in community, 
or retard her progress in the career of usefulness. 
Having, however, overcome some of the prejudices of 
education, and been providentially led, as I humbly 
trust, to another communion, which appears to hold 
up a clearer and more steady light, and to exhibit in 
its modes of operation a greater conformity to primi- 
tive usages,— when I have seen this communion assailed 



AN" ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



319 



m the manner before noticed, I have felt it an impe- 
rious duty to exert my feeble powers in its defence. 
The manner in which this has been done, is before 
the reader, and the result is left, without any of that 
anxiety which arises from doubtful disputations, to 
Him in whose hands are the destinies of all men, and 
who knows how to make allowances for human frailty. 

These remarks are to be considered merely pre- 
fatory, or if the reader please, apologetic, of w^hat I am 
now about to say of some usages in the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, which are considered unscriptural, 
and therefore an evidence of their departure, in these 
respects, from the original church of Christ. And 
-the first I shall mention is that of Confirmation, as 
held and practised by that church. But I should not 
mention even this, had not Dr. Chapman, w r ho seems 
to be considered the modern champion for the defence 
of their peculiarities, brought this forward with such 
prominence and boldness in his discourses. As he 
has, however, attempted its justification on Scriptural 
grounds, my first business is to examine those texts 
on which ho rests its support. 

That we may ascertain whether his references to 
Scripture authority are appositely applied in support 
of the doctrine and practice of confirmation, as now 
exemplified in the Protestant Episcopal Church, we 
must inquire in the first place, how this is held and 
practised in this church. Let it be recollected then, 
that persons are confirmed at from the age of twelve 
to twenty or more years, who had received the ordi- 
nance of baptism in infancy, or perhaps some years 
previously to their receiving the rite of confirmation 
that this rite is performed by a diocesan bishop only ; — 
that in submitting to it, the person takes upon himself 



320 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

the responsibility of discharging the obligation of those 
vows made for him by his sponsors in baptism ; — and 
that he is now pronounced to be regenerated by the 
Holy Spirit, and is entitled to all the privileges of the 
Christian Church. This is confirmation as adminis- 
tered in the Protestant Episcopal Church. And it is 
this rite, thus administered, that Dr. Chapman under- 
takes to defend by an appeal to the sacred Scrip- 
tures. 

Now, I take it upon me to affirm that there is not 
a single text in the sacred Scriptures, nor a single 
passage in the writings of the primitive fathers of the 
first three centuries, which support this practice. Ob- 
serve : — I do not say that confirmation was not prac- 
tised, even by the apostles and their successors ; but 
I say that the confirmation practised by them was as 
unlike this advocated by Dr. Chapman, as the ad- 
ministration of crism, or extreme unction, is to the true 
Scriptural baptism ; — that so far from its being delayed 
until some years after the subject of it was baptized, 
it was administered at the time of baptism, and was 
considered as an essential appendage of the baptismal 
rite, so much so that the latter was considered incom- 
plete without it. 

Let us see if this be not correct. And that we 
may not do injustice to Dr. C. and his admirers, some 
of whom, from the boldness of his assumptions I think 
it must principally arise, seem to think him invulner- 
able, let us examine the texts of Scripture on which 
he relies. The first passage he quotes is, Heb. vi, 
1, 2, "Therefore leaving the principles of the doc- 
trine of Christ, let us go on to perfection ; not laying 
again the foundation of repentance from dead works, 
and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptism, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 321 

and of laying on of hands." From this text, so 
obviously intended to show that the laying on of 
hands was closely connected with the ordinance of 
baptism, Dr. C. infers the scripturality of the right of 
confirmation, as practised in his church — that is, a 
separate and distinct rite performed years after the 
subject was baptized ! Such a blinding influence does 
a preconceived theory have upon a mind otherwise 
enlightened, and under the dictates of a heart sea- 
soned with sincerity. Now that the apostles spoke 
of that sort of laying on of hands which usually ac- 
companied or immediately succeeded the administra- 
tion of baptism, will appear indisputably manifest from 
other passages of Scripture, where the ceremony is 
alluded to. And as a " diamond best cuts a diamond," 
so Scripture is its own best interpreter. 

The next passage quoted in proof of this theory is, 
Acts viii, 14-17, "Now when the apostles which 
were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received 
the word of God," through the preaching of Philip, 
ver. 5, " they sent unto them Peter and John, who, 
when they came down, prayed for them that they 
might receive the Holy Ghost. (For as yet he was 
fallen on none of them, only they were baptized in 
the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their 
hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost." 
Now it is very manifest from this text and its connec- 
tion, that the laying on of the hands of the apostles 
followed soon after baptism, and was accompanied by 
the gift of the Holy Ghost ; and not on persons who 
had been baptized in their infancy, and had been edu- 
cated and previously prepared by a long course of 
instructions, as is done by those who are confirmed 
in the Protestant Episcopal Church, for the reception 

14* 



322 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

of this rite. Does this church really believe that all 
those persons receive the Holy Spirit, on whom the 
bishop's hands are laid in confirmation ? Were many 
of those asked the question, would they not in all 
likelihood answer, " We have not so much as heard 
whether there be any Holy Ghost ?" 

But we have a more direct and palpable proof of 
the correctness of this view of the subject in Acts 
xix, 1-6 : in the last two verses it is said, "When 
they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the 
Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands 
upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them ; and 
they spake with tongues and prophesied." Here it 
is evident that the act of confirmation immediately 
succeeded the ceremony of baptism, which has no 
more resemblance to the ceremonies of confirmation 
now in use, than confirmation has to consecration ; 
and yet this is one of the texts on which Dr. Chapman 
relies for proof of his doctrine on this subject ! 

That this apostolic practice was and should be con- 
tinued in the church, is not doubted. Indeed, I con- 
sider baptism but half performed, unless the application 
of water to the body be followed by the imposition of 
hands and prayer, that the blessing of the Holy Spirit 
may descend upon the subject of this holy ordinance. 
And yet no man can prove that it was the practice of 
the apostles, nor of any of their successors in the 
church, for the three first centuries, that confirmation 
was administered to the candidates for admission into 
the communion of the faithful only in connection with 
baptism, unless it were to those on whom it had been 
neglected at the proper time, as was the case with 
those at Samaria ; and then, as in that instance, it 
was followed as soon thereafter as practicable. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



323 



That we may be convinced of this, let us hear 
some of the first fathers of the church in reference to 
this subject Cyprian, having referred to those of 
Samaria for a justification of the practice of laying on 
of hands, says, — 

" In the second creation, God first prepares the 
man, before he gives his Spirit : he first makes a man 
a fit temple for the Holy Ghost. Now the way by 
which a man is prepared and fitted, is by baptism, by 
which he is cleansed and purged from sin,"* and fitted 
for the reception of the Spirit of God, in which re- 
spect he is to be regarded as a body. The way by 
which the Holy Ghost is infused, which as a living 
soul must, actuate and direct that prepared body, is by 
prayer and imposition of hands, or by confirmation.' ' 
Here is nothing said, nor even intimated, about any 
other preparation for imposition of hands than bap- 
tism ; and as all must allow that it is extremely de- 

* I do not vouch for the correctness of these sentiments of 
Cyprian respecting the efficacy of baptism. It certainly should 
not be considered any thing more than a divinely appointed 
means of grace, which, when rightly administered, is accom- 
panied, as all duties are, with God's blessing. It is " not the 
putting away the filth of the flesh'* — it is not to be considered 
in the light of a common washing, resorted to for the cleansing 
of the body, u but the answer of a good conscience" — it has a 
moral or spiritual influence upon the mind when done in obe- 
dience to God's command, in the spirit of his requirement. 

The fact is, when Cyprian, wrote, which was in the third 
century, too much stress was laid upon outward ceremonies, 
and hence the strong, and, as I think, unscriptural saying in the 
text, that baptism cleanses and purges the soul from sin. 
Though we ought not to doubt that, when rightly administered, 
it is always accompanied with God's blessing, yet it should be 
considered only as a means, in the use of which we are to look 
for the " inward and spiritual grace," prefigured by this outward 
rite, which is wrought in the soul by the Spirit of God. 



324 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

sirable that whenever a person is prepared for the 
reception of so great a blessing as that of the Holy 
Spirit, he should receive it without delay, are we to 
suppose that they were in the habit of waiting for 
years before they were thus confirmed by the laying 
on of hands ? The thing is absurd in itself. Nothing, 
therefore, is more manifest, even from this quotation 
itself, than that the laying on of hands and prayer 
followed in consecutive order the ordinance of baptism. 

But we have a more direct and irrefragable proof 
that this is the true sense in which we are to under- 
stand this subject, in the words of Tertullian. He 
says — 

" As soon as we come out of the baptismal laver, 
we are anointed, and then are confirmed." This must 
set the matter at rest with all those who confide in 
the testimony of Scripture, and of the Greek and 
Latin fathers here quoted. 

Indeed the very fact, that they supposed the 
graces of the Holy Spirit were not communicated 
until by " prayer and imposition of hands," refutes the 
absurd notion that this manner of blessing the young 
converts was delayed for years : for this would be to 
leave them graceless, under the power of sin, and out 
of the pale of the Church. So Ambrose, bishop of 
Milan, says, " By imposition of hands, it is believed, 
the Spirit may be received, which i9 wont to be done 
after baptism, by the bishop, for the confirmation of 
unity in the Church." Do you not see how closely 
he connects the imposition of hands with baptism ? 
There can, therefore, be no doubt, that the laying on 
of hands immediately succeeded the administration of 
baptism, and that the person was not considered as 
completely initiated into the Church, unless this were 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 325 

done ; and hence, as I before said, the ceremony of 
baptism in itself is but half performed, unless it be 
followed by imposition of hands and prayers. 

In the early age of Christianity, those who were 
converted from Paganism, were brought into the 
Church through the initiating rite of baptism, and in 
order to its proper and complete administration, the 
application of water to the body in the name of the 
holy Trinity, was immediately followed with the im- 
position of the hands of the administrator, and prayer 
for the gift of the Holy Spirit. And as there were 
heathen who had not received the ordinance in child- 
hood, they received it now in an adult age. Hence 
the accounts we have in the Acts of the Apostles, of 
the baptism of those who w r ere converted to the faith, 
and of their receiving the Holy Spirit, by prayer and 
imposition of the hands of the Apostles. 

But Dr. Chapman thinks that because we read in 
the above extracts that hands were laid on those con- 
verts by the apostles and bishops, therefore none but 
diocesan bishops have the right of administering con- 
firmation, and hence also he infers the divine right 
of episcopacy, and the exclusive right of confirmation 
in a third order. It is truly surprising w T ith what faci- 
lity a man imposes upon himself whenever he makes 
his theory a key to unlock the meaning of Scripture, 
and an interpreter of ancient writings, instead of bring- 
ing his theory to these tests in order to try its strength 
and solidity. 

The truth is, that whoever administered baptism^ 
if he performed his whole duty, administered also con- 
firmation at the same time ; for they were not consi- 
dered as two separate rites, performed at two separate 
seasons, but one and the same, the laying on of hands 



326 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

and prayer following in consecutive order the rite of 
baptism. " But apostles and bishops laid on hands." 
Truly; but do you not know that at first apostles 
did the work of bishops, and even of deacons, until 
they were relieved by an increase of laborers, and 
then that bishops and presbyters were of the same 
order until the usurpation already noticed ? This has 
been irrefutably proved. Well then — presbyters bap- 
tized, confirmed, and ordained, and did all other things 
pertaining to their office as bishops or overseers of the 
flock of Christ. 

It is therefore perfectly absurd to suppose that be- 
cause it is said that a bishop laid hands on the young 
converts, therefore this rite was performed exclusively 
by a third order of the ministry. This is nothing 
more than what logicians call petitio principii, the 
begging the question, a taking for granted what has 
never been proved. The quotations already made, 
both from the sacred Scriptures and the early fathers, 
prove that he who baptized confirmed at the same 
time ; and it is perfectly absurd to suppose the con- 
trary ; for if imposition of hands and prayer were con- 
sidered necessary to make the ceremony of baptism 
itself complete, then it follows inevitably that he who 
did the one must also do the other, otherwise he left 
his work imperfect. 

If there be any truth in these remarks, it will fol- 
low that confirmation as now administered in the Pro- 
testant Episcopal Church is unscriptural, and contrary 
to the usages of the primitive Church for the first 
three hundred years. In the first place, allowing 
infant baptism to be Scriptural, as we both do, if the 
laying on of hands accompanied this ordinance, as it 
unquestionably did, then whenever it is rightly admi- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 327 

uistered, it need not be repeated when the person 
comes to mature age, because the Scriptural confirma- 
tion has been already bestowed upon him. Secondly, 
if adults are converted to God who had not before, 
been baptized, they should, at their conversion, re- 
ceive the ordinance, and be dismissed by prayer and 
imposition of hands ; and thus the repetition of it at a 
future time is rendered unnecessary. In either way, 
therefore, the confirmation service, as now practised 
by that church, is an unscriptural requisition, contrary 
to primitive custom ; and hence, in this particular, in 
retaining this relic of Romish superstition, they have 
departed from the original Church of Christ. 

It is, nevertheless, contended that Paul and Barna- 
bas went to " Lystra and Iconium, and to Antioch, 
confirming the souls of the disciples." Truly — but 
how did they confirm them ? Why, by " exhorting 
them to continue in the faith," and assuring them 
" that we must through much tribulation enter into the 
kingdom of God." This indeed is the most effectual 
way to confirm believers in the doctrines of Jesus 
Christ, by exhorting them to steadfastness in the faith, 
and to diligence in their several duties, and teaching 
them 10 look to God by prayerful and believing hearts 
for the gift of the Holy Spirit, without whose aid and 
influence nothing great or strong can be effected. 

It is thought, moreover, that the manner in w T hich 
confirmation is administered in the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church, has a very dangerous tendency. Such 
as are thus confirmed are pronounced regenerated, 
and consequently are considered in a state of salva- 
tion. If this were so in fact, the administration of the 
rite would be most salutary, as it would indeed con- 
firm their souls in the faith of the Gospel, and bring 



AN" ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



them under more solemn obligations to fidelity to the 
precepts of Christianity. But as we have reason to 
believe that most of those who receive the ordinance 
are strangers to the regenerating influences of the Holy 
Spirit, they must of necessity be built up in a decep- 
tive hope, and confirmed in a delusive dream of spi- 
ritual attainments and enjoyments. Is it not much 
more safe, as it is certainly more Scriptural, for those 
who were baptized in infancy to give evidence, on a 
confession of faith, of the soundness of their conver- 
sion, before they are received into the church, and 
then let them be confirmed by exhorting them to con- 
tinue " steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellow- 
ship, and in breaking of bread V 7 And as to those 
who were not baptized in infancy, but became truly 
converted to God in adult age, let them receive the 
Scriptural baptism and confirmation by the application 
of water in the name of the Holy Trinity, and by 
prayer and imposition of hands for the gifts of the 
Holy Spirit. This was unquestionably the primitive 
practice, and therefore should be continued in the 
church. 

Without this inward grace, this constant working 
of the Holy Spirit, outward ceremonies, whether of 
baptism, confirmation, or partaking of the holy com- 
munion, are like the dried channels of the river to a 
thirsty man — they yield him no refreshing seasons 
from the presence of the Lord. But when accom- 
panied by this Spirit, they are like the " upper and 
nether springs," and by partaking of them the be- 
liever's soul becomes like a " watered garden, whose 
waters fail not," 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



329 



NUMBER XXVI. 

Laving on of hands customary on sundry occasions— Forms of 
prayer not Scriptural — Use of the Lord's Prayer — Origen's account 
of it — Cyprian's — Tertulliams — Justin Martyr's — Xo set forms pre- 
scribed — Evident from scarcity of books — Art of printing not known 
— Not apostolical — All forms nor condemned — Holy Spirit more 
important — Saying Amen Scriptural — Proved from 1 Cor. xiv. 16, 
and from Justin Martyr — Modesty and humility should accompanV 
us to the throne of grace — Spirit of prayer may exist either with 
or without a form — Boisterous expressions and boldness of manner 
condemned. 

It would be an easy matter to show that laving 
on of hands was a ceremony used both by the Jews 
and Christians, whenever a person was designated for 
any particular work, or was especially consecrated to 
God. But as this must be evident to every reader 
of the Bible, it seems unnecessary to spend time in 
its proof. From this ancient custom among the Jews, 
doubtless originated the practice of confirming those 
who were consecrated to God in baptism, by the im- 
position of hands and prayer. Indeed, it appears evi- 
dent that whenever a lapsed person, who had been 
excommunicated from the church for any crime, on 
his giving evidence of penitence, was restored, the 
officiating minister laid his hands upon him again, and 
prayed that he might receive the Holy Spirit, to 
enable him to stand fast in the faith. But that this 
confirmation was according to any prescribed form is 
more than can be proved from any part of Scripture, 
or from any of the fathers of the church. It was done 
as a token of the reconciliation of the church to the 
restored offender, and from the fulness of the heart 
breathing out its desires to God that his Holy Spirit 
might accompany his re-union with his brethren, and 



330 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

that he should not again disgrace his profession by any 
act of apostacy. 

I come next to inquire whether the Protestant 
Episcopal Church have any authority from sacred 
Scripture, or from the writers in those primitive times, 
for tying themselves down to prescribed forms of 
prayer? Now I venture to affirm that no other form 
of prayer was prescribed either in the sacred Scrip- 
tures, or by any writer in the church during the first 
three centuries, than the Lord's Prayer, and that even 
this was used only occasionally ; for it is evident that 
they never understood — if we may infer the under- 
standing of this matter from their practice — the direc- 
tion of our Saviour respecting the use of this prayer, 
as implying any more than a general model for 
prayer—" After this manner pray ye," &c. That 
they did frequently use this inimitable form of prayer 
in their assemblies, which, for comprehensiveness of 
matter, beauty of diction, and fervency of spirit, stands 
unrivalled among all the prayers ever indited, is mani- 
fest from several passages, although it is equally evi- 
dent that it was not expressly prescribed, so as to 
make it obligatory at all times. The following quo- 
tations will sustain this assertion : — 

Origen saith, " Christ gave us a prayer, with which 
he commanded us to pray unto the Father." Tertul- 
lian writes, " That our Lord Jesus Christ gave to his 
disciples a new form of prayer." But Cyprian is 
more full than either of the former in reference to this 
point. He says, — - 

" Christ hath given us a form of prayer, and hath 
admonished and instructed us what we should pray 
for. He hath made us live, hath taught us to pray, 
that while we offer to the Father the prayer which 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST, 



331 



the Son taught, we may be the more easily heard. 
For what prayer can be more Scriptural than that 
which was given us by Christ, who gave us also the 
Holy Spirit ? And what prayer can be more preva- 
lent with God, than that of his Son, who is the truth 
proceeding out of his mouth ? So that to pray other- 
wise than he hath taught, is both ignorance and im- 
piety. Let us pray, therefore, dearly beloved brethren, 
as God our Master hath taught us : it is a friendly 
and familiar prayer to ask God with his own, and to 
present the prayer of Christ to his ears ; the Father 
will acknowledge his Son's words. When we pray, 
let him that dwells in the heart be in the voice ; and 
since we have him an Advocate with the Father for 
our sins, when we beg pardon for our sins, let us use 
the words of our Advocate ; and since he says, that 
whatsoever we shall ask of the Father in his name, 
he will give it unto us ; how much more efficaciously 
shall we prevail for what we beg in Christ's name, 
if we ask it in his prayer." 

Tertullian pronounces the following eulogy on this 
prayer : — " In the compendium of a few words, how 
many declarations of prophets, evangelists, and apos- 
tles ; how many speeches, parables, examples, and 
precepts are contained ! How many duties toward 
God ! Honor to God in the preface, faith in the first 
petition, hope in the second, resignation in the third, 
petition for life in the fourth, confession of sins in the 
fifth, watchfulness against temptations in the sixth, 
What wonder ! God alone could teach how he would 
be prayed to." 

While these extracts show that they did use, at 
least occasionally, this form of prayer, yet it is mani- 
fest that they neither confined themselves to it, nor 



332 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

used other prescribed forms in its place ; but that they 
added others from the fulness of their own hearts,— 
wants, times, and circumstances dictating the nature 
and form of their petitions and intercessions. So says 
Tertullian immediately after he had finished the above 
eulogy upon the Lord's prayer : — " That we may add 
thereunto, and offer up prayers unto God according to 
the variety of our circumstances and condition." These 
w r ords certainly are not indicative of their having had 
prescribed forms of prayer, from which they were not 
allowed to deviate. This is farther manifest from 
the following extract from the same writer : — 

" We may add thereunto ; for since the Lord, the 
observer of all human necessities, has in another 
place, after he had delivered this prayer, said, Ask f 
and ye shall receive ; and every one has particular 
circumstances to beg for ; therefore, having premised 
the lawful and ordinary prayer, there is place for ac- 
cidental requests, and a liberty of offering up other 
petitions, so as they do agree with the precepts : as 
far as we are from the precepts, so far are we from 
God's ears ; the remembrance of the precepts makes 
way for our prayers to heaven, of which it is the 
chief." 

These " accidental requests" arose out of the cir- 
cumstances in which they were placed, the particular 
dangers to which they were exposed, the trials with 
which they had to struggle, and the particular bless- 
ings they needed, and which God had promised, and 
to which no prescribed forms could be suited. What 
form of prayer is it to be supposed the penitent per- 
secutor, Saul of Tarsus, used, when in Damascus it 
was said of him, " Behold, he prayeth ?" Such a form 
only as his heart dictated — or, rather, such as the 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 333 

Holy Spirit dictated, when it made " intercession for 
him with groanings w r hich cannot be uttered." 

Justin Martyr, speaking of the prayer which was 
offered to God in the celebration of the Lord's sup- 
per, says, " That the bishop sent up prayers and 
praises to God, with his utmost ability plainly indi- 
cating that his prayers and praises were the offspring 
of his own heart, under the ordinary influences of the 
Holy Spirit. 

That they used no prescribed forms of prayer is 
farther evident from what Origen says in respect to 
the posture of the prayer, namely, lifting up their eyes 
and hands to heaven, and closing their eyes. Hear 
him in his comment upon the words of our Saviour, 
in Matt, vi, 5 : And token thou pray est, &c. " But 
he that is no hypocrite, enters into the closet of his 
heart, to the riches that are treasured up there, and 
shutting himself in amongst those treasures of wisdom 
and knowledge, and not fixing his eyes on external 
objects, as looking after any thing without, and closing 
every gate of the senses, lest he should be drawn 
aside by them, and their species or fancies should 
creep into his mind, he prays to the Father, who never 
flies from, or leaves such a one, but, together with the 
Son, dwells in him." In another place he says, 
" Closing the eyes of his senses, but exerting those 
of his mind." How could such read prayers from a 
book ! 

There is another insurmountable difficulty in the 
way of our believing that the primitive Christians 
used forms of prayer in their congregations, or in their 
more private devotions. Books were exceedingly 
scarce, and the art of printing was not known. All 
the books therefore which they had were confined to 



334 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

a few manuscript copies, which were generally depo- 
sited in the churches, and these were chiefly copies of 
the Holy Scriptures, which were read and expounded 
by those who led their devotions. It was indeed ut- 
terly impracticable for them to have forms of prayer put 
into the hands of the people, suited to the various exi- 
gencies in which they might be placed. This fact, 
together with the expressions found in the above ex- 
tracts respecting entering into the " closet of our 
hearts," " shutting our eyes," and making " accidental 
requests," authorizes the conclusion that they were 
strangers to prescribed forms of prayer. Hence in 
this particular the Protestant Episcopal Church have 
departed from primitive usage. 

What would an apostle have thought, could he 
have heard one of the itinerating evangelists affirm, 
that, to lay aside the use of the Prayer Book, and to 
substitute our own effusions in place of prescribed 
forms, was to perjure one's self? And yet such as- 
tounding declarations have been heard from the lips 
of a late bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
Indeed, if my information does not deceive me, many 
of the clergy of that church have felt themselves much 
straitened by being tied down so rigidly to their forms, 
that they dare hardly utter an extemporaneous prayer, 
for fear of incurring the displeasure of their diocesan. 
Is this Scriptural ? Is it according to primitive 
usage ? I think not. 

I do not, indeed, condemn all forms of prayer. 
And as to those in use in the church of which I am 
speaking, I believe they have one of the most unex- 
ceptionable liturgies in the world — the prayers breath- 
ing a fervency of devotion, in language at once 
Scriptural, experimental, and spiritual, which none 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 336 

but a truly regenerated man can feelingly and believ- 
ingly use. The hypocrite and dull formalist, in the 
use of these prayers, must incur the fearful responsi- 
bility of adding a solemn mockery to his other sins. 
Yet, those who so strenuously contend for apostolic 
precept and practice in vindication of their usages, and 
so roundly condemn others who dissent from them on 
a point so dubious as that of apostolic succession, 
should be careful to fortify themselves against assail- 
ants, with something more substantial than merely 
modern usage, and allowance of the Scriptural lan- 
guage of their prayers ; and more especially to justify 
the denunciatory language which is adopted towards 
those who may think it a privilege to " close their 
eyes against all outward things," and to lift up their 
souls in prayer and praise under the dictates of a 
heart swelling with gratitude, or heaving with intense 
desire, without the promptings of a prayer book. 

It is most assuredly of vastly more consequence to 
have the heart prepared by the gracious influence of 
the Holy Spirit, and to keep the mind in the frame of 
unceasing prayer, than it is either to commit a well- 
digested prayer to memory, or to repeat one over with 
dull emphasis from a book. Those, indeed, must be 
in a sad plight who, on any unexpected emergency, 
such as sudden danger, violent temptation, or in time 
of sickness, can no otherwise pray than as they are 
directed by a prescribed form* I allow, that a truly 
spiritual man may pray acceptably to God, either with 
or without a form ; and that, in many cases, where 
such a form may be written as shall always be suit- 
able, such as baptism, the sacrament of the Lord's 
supper, and consecration of ministers, prayers may be 
prescribed more suitable than an ordinary man could 



336 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

well dictate spontaneously ; but to confine every 
public administrator of God's word to the habitual 
use of particular forms of prayer for every occasion, 
in all circumstances, and make him obnoxious to ec- 
clesiastical censure if he presume to depart from them, 
is a usurpation of power over the consciences of men, 
and an exercise of unscriptural authority over their 
Christian liberties. It was unknown to the primitive 
church, and therefore should not be imposed upon 
men as an indispensable duty. 

It is manifest from numerous testimonies, that it 
was the custom of the primitive Christian assemblies 
to follow the prayers of the minister with the respon- 
sive amen, thereby intimating their assent to the peti- 
tions, and their hearty wish that so it might be. The 
Scripture authority for this practice is found in 1 Cor. 
xiv, 16 : " Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, 
how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned, 
say amen, at thy giving of thanks, seeing he under- 
standeth not what thou sayest." This text, while it 
condemns the practice of the Romish Church in offer- 
ing up prayers in a tongue unknown to the people, 
fully justifies the practice of those congregations who 
are in the habit of accompanying their ministers in 
prayer, and expressing their sincere wish for an 
answer by a hearty amen — which means, so be it. 
And that the primitive Christians so understood it, 
and practised accordingly, we have evidence in the 
following extracts : — 

Justin Martyr, speaking of the celebration of the 
eucharist, saith, " The bishop makes a long prayer 
over the elements, and when he ends all the people 
present give their approbation by saying amen. And 
when the elements are blessed by the minister's prayer, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



337 



and the people have approved it by saying amen, then 
they are distributed. ? ' 

Now, though these passages justify the practice of 
the people's expressing their approbation by a loud 
" amen" at the conclusion of the prayer, there is no 
authority for commingling of prayer, by the alternate 
voice of the minister and people, as is done in some 
portions of the public service of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church. 

Thus much on the subject of forms of prayer. And 
let it not be thought that these strictures arise from a 
captious spirit ; I have not so much of a disposition 
to find fault with others, as I have to defend our own 
rules and usages. If they judge it most conducive to 
the practice of piety, and to the diffusion of pure reli- 
gion, to read prayers in the congregation, let them do 
it ; but do not let them plead that they have the 
authority of Scripture and primitive usage for impos- 
ing this upon their ministers and people as an indis- 
pensable obligation. And if they are so happy as to 
feel the workings of that Holy Spirit, after which 
they so frequently seek in their prayers, and to exem- 
plify those heavenly principles inculcated in their 
religious formularies, they w r ill not rise in opposition 
to others who are striving after the same Spirit, and 
endeavoring to promulgate the same principles. But, 
in the mean time, let them remember that in this par- 
ticular also they have departed from the practice of 
the original church of Christ, and that the necessity 
of adhering to it implies a destitution, in some mea- 
sure, at least, of that fervency of devotion, and that 
spiritual communion with God, by which the primitive 
disciples were distinguished. A man who is conscious 
of his wants fails not to find appropriate language to 

15 



338 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

express them. And though a heated imagination 
may lead a man to a wild and incoherent manner of 
expression, incompatible with the modesty and diffi- 
dence which become a fallible and dependent being 
in his addresses to the throne of grace ; yet, under 
the ordinary influences of the divine Spirit, which 
every true Christian enjoys, a sober judgment will 
guide him to that humbleness of manner and suitable- 
ness of expression which will tend to his own and to 
the edification of others. It is said, indeed, by Cy- 
prian, that the prayer of the minister was "pronounced 
with a modest and bashful voice," which is, I appre- 
hend, far removed from that loud and boisterous man- 
ner adopted by those who seem to think their success 
in prayer will be in exact proportion to the length and 
loudness of their petitions. Hannah's prayer was 
heard and answered, though expressed in a whisper. 
And though St. Cyprian says, that our " petitions 
should be sent up to God with most fervent prayers, 
with tears, and cries, and groans," yet he evidently 
and most justly condemns that boisterous manner 
which a wild enthusiasm substitutes for the exercise 
of faith and humility, and which disgusts the well- 
informed more than it edifies any. 

Fervency of spirit, therefore, accompanied with 
modesty of manner, with humility of mind, and a re- 
liance upon the promises of God in Christ Jesus, will 
render prayer acceptable, whether it be made with or 
without a form. 



AN" ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 339 



NUMBER XXVII. 

Conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church— How formed 
— Gentlemen not church members sent to them — This unscriptural 
and pernicious — Bishop White's opinion — Theatrical amusements 
-allowed to members of that church — Bishop White's opinion — 
Censurable — Sad predicament of the church — Demoralizing effects 
o'f theatres — Xo such practice allowed in the primitive church. 

Having shown that the rite of confirmation, as 
administered by the Protestant Episcopal Church, and 
a prescribed form of prayer, to which the minister 
must confine himself, are neither supported by Scrip- 
ture nor sanctioned from primitive usage, I come now 
to speak of some other things which appear to me 
equally unscriptural, and, therefore, not according to 
the original practice of the church. The first to wdiich 
I would call attention, is the manner in which their 
conventions are constituted. These are made up of 
an equal number of lay and clerical delegates. 
Though I can find nothing in the early writings of 
the church to justify thus committing ecclesiastical 
affairs to the government of such a mixed representa- 
tion, yet it is not to the practice itself that I object, 
but it is to the allowing gentlemen, not members of 
the church at all, but mere pew-holders, to become 
the legislators in spiritual matters. This is com- 
mitting those spiritual affairs which involve the ever- 
lasting interests of mankind into the hands of men who 
know not God, who do not profess religion, are not 
even members of the visible church. Is such a 
practice sanctioned either by Scriptural usage or by 
the fitness of things ? 

The Apostle Paul censured the Corinthians for 
calling in the aid of those from without the church, to 



340 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

judge of temporal matters, and settle disputes. Bu. 
this practice is tolerable, in comparison to committing 
the most weighty concerns of the church into the 
hands of men who do not even profess religion, and 
who, though they may have the " form of godliness, 
deny the power thereof." The vote of such a person 
may turn the scale against the judgment of a house 
of bishops, and all the clerical delegates which com- 
pose the lower house, even on a point of the highest 
importance to the well-being and prosperity of the 
church. I doubt whether this practice can be justi- 
fied by any precedent in the acts of the church, either 
in scriptural or primitive times, until after it was 
wedded to the state, and received its laws from civil 
legislators. 

And how does this practice quadrate with the 
doctrine of apostolic succession, and that independ- 
ence of the clerical character which such a doctrine 
would seem to sanction ? Here is a convention of 
apostolic successors solemnly convened for the pur- 
pose of deliberating on the affairs of the church, so 
organized by the introduction of laymen under no re- 
ligious profession, not even members of a church that 
allows of balls and theatres, into its councils, that these 
gentlemen may, by their votes, frustrate all their good 
designs, control the deliberations of grave apostolic 
successors, whose heads are adorned with episcopal 
mitres ! Would St. Paul have submitted to this ? 
Is not this mingling worldly policy too much with the 
councils of the church, and thereby conforming to the 
temper and practice of mere political assemblies 7 
And does not Bishop White, in the extract which fol- 
lows, admit that this was submitted to at first for the 
purpose of enlisting the influence of such men in their 



aN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



341 



favor ? And what is this but allowing that a gain 
may be made of godliness, and that it was necessary 
— the necessity arising from the sparsity of spiritual 
men — in order to build up their community ? 

Is this practice in conformity to the usage of the 
original church of Christ ? Do you think that the 
apostles resorted to a similar practice, in order to en- 
large the boundaries of the Christian church, and to 
extend the circumference of their influence ? Did not 
vSt. Paul rather openly rebuke St. Peter, for seeming 
to lean toward this worldly policy to avoid reproach ? 
It is to be hoped that the Protestant Episcopal Church 
will soon rid itself of this encumbrance, by incor- 
porating in their highest councils none but such as 
give evidence that they are " no reprobates," by their 
" having the Spirit of Christ."' 

The following are Bishop White's remarks in refer- 
ence to this subject. It seems that at the convention 
of that church, which is held triennially, in IS 33, a 
communication was received from the Rev. Philander 
Chase, bishop of Ohio, embracing several topics, 
among which was this of admitting non-professors of 
religion to be delegates of the conventions. This 
communication was referred to Bishop White for an 
answer ; and the following are his remarks on this 
point : — 

" The answer to this Was, the decided opinion that 
none but communicants should be sent : but whether 
it would not be too strong an act of government, and 
may not be left to advice and persuasion, and of even 
these to be governed by fitness of character in other 
respects, may be made a question. When we or- 
ganized our church the proposal of such a measure 
would have stopped us at the threshold. Whether 



342 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

we are now ripe for it, should be well considered be- 
fore we make the attempt. One great discourage- 
ment is the direction given to the public mind by the 
use made of the same test in England. Among us it 
has been gone into in one diocese only, and was sub- 
sequently abandoned. Should any diocese again un- 
dertake the matter, they would seem to be competent." 

It would seem, therefore, that the practice, in the 
opinion of the bishop, was somewhat reluctantly sub- 
mitted to at first, and continued as a matter of expe- 
diency ; for he asserts that " none but communicants 
ought to be sent." So that I am borne out in my 
opinion by the judgment of Bishop White, that the 
practice is wrong in itself, and therefore should not be 
tolerated, except as a necessary evil to be thrown off 
as soon as possible. 

May we not suppose that it is from this cause that 
that church has found it so difficult to debar its mem- 
bers from attending upon the common amusements of 
the day ? It is well known that several attempts have 
been made in their conventions to make it a term of 
church communion that their members should refrain 
from attending theatrical representations ; but that such 
has been the strong bias in their favor, hitherto they 
have been unable to carry such a measure into exe- 
cution. This subject, it seems, was referred to in the 
above-mentioned communication of Bishop Chase, and 
the following is Bishop White's answer : — 

" The next point introduced, was that of theatrical 
entertainments ; in respect to which the answerer took 
occasion to develope his sentiments. They are> that 
the theatre, as it always has been, and is likely to be 
always conducted, has a general tendency to corrupt 
the morals ; not only because of profane and indecent 



AX ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 343 

words and sentiments in some plays, but because vice 
is often insidiously set off to advantage, by it& being 
associated with agreeable and even estimable quali- 
ties. Still, we cannot affirm that there is sin in the 
introducing of fictitious characters, for a display of 
sentiments strictly moral and instructive : for which 
reason it would seem improper in a clergyman, as was 
the object of the proposal, to repel from the com- 
munion, for being present at a play not containing 
any thing contrary to religion or morals. If it should 
be urged that the stage is sometimes so abused, as has 
been admitted, it is an argument which may be trans- 
ferred to the pulpit ; because of some discourses from 
it very dangerous to the consciences of the hearers ; 
if not in some respects, yet in some others. If a 
communicant should knowingly be present at an ex- 
hibition sanctioning vice, it is another matter, and 
might justly be made a ground of exclusion." (See 
Bishop White's Memoirs, page 248.) 

These appear to me the most exceptionable of all 
the sentiments ever uttered by Bishop White. Though 
he gives it as his opinion that the manner in which 
theatres are attended renders them injurious to piety 
and morals, yet he thinks that they are not evils in 
themselves, but may be innocent, and that therefore 
the good or evil resulting from frequenting them must 
be determined by what is transacted. Allowing the 
truth of this statement, do you not see to what a di- 
lemma it reduces the church? In the first place, 
before a person can safely determine on the lawful- 
ness or propriety of attending to a theatrical repre- 
sentation, he must either read it over himself, or rely 
upon the judgment of some one else who has ac- 
quainted himself with its merits ; or, if neither of these 



344 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

be done, he must go and see and hear for himself, and 
then determine upon its character; and would not 
either of these be a dangerous experiment ? 

Look, moreover, at the predicament of the admi- 
nistrator of discipline. If he presume to call a 
member of the church to an account for frequenting 
the theatre, he must, in order to decide correctly upon 
the merits of the case, produce witnesses to ascertain 
the moral or immoral character of the play, To 
enable them to testify intelligibly, they must have been 
present to witness the exhibition. And how many 
would be thus willing to expose, and, perhaps, to 
criminate themselves, in giving testimony for or against 
others ? And then the diversity of judgments in respect 
to the morality or immorality of the exhibition ! "Who 
should finally decide in these dubious points 1 Must 
not an endless perplexity follow such casuistry as this ? 

Now, I cannot but think that a church which re- 
duces itself to such a dilemma, must be in very 
straitened circumstances. Not only in straitened cir- 
cumstances, but also in a very low state as it respects 
its morals and spirituality. As the stage is now con- 
ducted, with all its attendant circumstances, do we 
hazard any thing in saying that it unavoidably and 
necessarily corrupts the morals of youth, vitiates 
the mind, debases the passions, and is therefore the 
very purlieu of destruction ? Can there be a more 
direct road to perdition ? Is it not a well-known fact 
that our theatres are generally surrounded with houses 
of ill fame, with grog-shops, and with every tempta- 
tion to vicious indulgence which can possibly be in- 
vented to ensnare the youthful heart, to palsy genius, 
to poison the blood, to brutalize the moral nature of 
man, and to drown the soul in the sea of pollution ? 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 345 

And shall an original church of Christ fear to lift up 
its voice in reprobation of an amusement pregnant 
with such evils — so prolific of its thousands of untold 
miseries ? Should it not, indeed, speak in tones of 
thunder, as well as with the voice of tender and 
maternal warning, against standing upon a precipice so 
steep and slippery, and which leads to a gulf so deep 
and wide ? 

Surely a church that fears to do this, however 
canonical may be the orders of its ministry, and how- 
ever orthodox its doctrines, and Scriptural its forms 
of prayer, must have awfully departed, in practice, 
from original purity and simplicity, and therefore needs 
the reforming hand of some master spirit, some strong, 
primitive, and God-fearing apostolic successor, to bring 
it back to a primitive standard. 

Let the reader associate in his mind the apostles 
and primitive saints. Let him imagine to himself that 
he lives in the days of the apostles, and that he is 
surrounded with those holy men of God who com- 
posed and adorned the first churches of Jesus Christ. 
Let him then suppose that a theatre is erected at 
Athens, filled and surrounded as one of our modern 
theatres is ; do you think he would ever dream of 
seeing these apostles and their converts associating 
themselves with the actors and actresses, or with the 
hearers and supporters — for all hearers are supporters 
of theatres — and participating with them in their sports 
and plays — in their cups and gamblings ! Heaven 
and hell are not more opposite than such a contrast. 
To mention the thing is to exhibit its perfect absurdity. 
An apostle a patronizer of theatres ! The saints of 
God, in primitive days, attenders upon theatrical 
representations ! 

15* 



346 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



I conclude, therefore, that a church which vacillates 
on this subject has departed from the original church 
of Christ, and ought therefore to purify itself from all 
those unhallowed associations which lead to the con- 
tinuance of a practice so pernicious- in itself, and so 
destructive in its tendency. 



NUMBER XXVIII. 

The defence finished— Wesley led by Divine Providence— This 
evident from> the Scriptural character of the church — Summary 
view of the system— 1. Classes— 2. Stewards— 3. Quarterly meet- 
ing Conferences— 4. Annual Conferences— 5. General Conference. 
6. Bishops— Book Concern— Missionary Society— Sabbath Schools, 
Academies and Colleges — Adaptation of the system to the condi- 
tion of society — Though opposed, yet successful. 

Having finished my defence of the orders and pow- 
ers of the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
I hope it will not be considered out of place to make 
a few remarks upon what appears to me to be the 
gospel simplicity and beautiful symmetry of the whole 
machinery, and 1 then to address a few words to the 
members of this church. 

In the first place, however, I cannot refrain from 
expressing my gratitude to God for the manner in 
which the founder of the system, the Rev. John Wes- 
ley, was so providentially led to its adoption. It has 
often been justly remarked, that when he commenced 
his ministerial career, which has eventuated in such 
great good to mankind, he had no previously digested 
plan, but was led on, step by step, as by an invisible 
Hand. His first determination was, after he had com- 
pleted his education, to bury himself in the shades of 
Oxford. From this determination he departed when 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 347 

he engaged, at the earnest solicitation of his friends 
and the governor of the colony, to embark for 
Georgia. His next step, after his return to England, 
and his conversion to God, was the formation of soci- 
eties ; then to field and itinerant preaching, the em- 
ployment of lay preachers, and the formation of cir- 
cuits, the calling of conferences, &c, &c. All these 
peculiarities were in some sense forced upon him, 
contrary to his wishes. What I mean by this is, that 
such were his attachments to the national church, that 
he reluctantly departed from any of her usages, and 
in no instance did he do it, until compelled from irre- 
sistible conviction that duty to God and to the souls 
of men called him to make the sacrifice. I have been 
struck with this truth more than ever since I com- 
menced this discussion ; and it has seemed to me re- 
markable that he should have been led in this way and 
manner to adopt measures so Scriptural, and to esta- 
blish a church on principles so conformable to primitive 
usage and apostolic example, as those which we behold 
exemplified in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 
the government of this church we discover an admira- 
ble adaptation of means to ends, equally removed from 
congregational and presbyterial parity, and high-toned 
episcopacy ; the former levelling all distinctions in the 
order of the clergy, and the other building up a hierar- 
chy on a pretended apostolic succession, pleading for 
a third order in the ministry jure divino, without which 
there can be no valid ministry, and of course no gospel 
ordinances ; while the Methodist Episcopal Church 
comes in between them both, equidistant from the 
levelling democracy of the one and the high 
claims of the other. Now, that Mr. Wesley should 
have been led, so contrary to all his notions of church 



349 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



order, and all the principles of his education, to adopt 
a plan of procedure so easily defended by Scripture 
and primitive usage, is an evidence to my mind that 
he was conducted in these particulars by the hand of 
God, and under the light and guidance of that divine 
Spirit which giveth understanding to man. This, I 
think, has been abundantly manifest in the preceding 
numbers. 

Let us now, that we may discover at one view the 
symmetry of the whole plan, glance at the different 
parts of the system. In the first place, there are the 
classes, consisting of from twelve to twenty members, 
under the inspection of leaders, who are responsible 
for their official conduct to the preacher from whom 
they receive their appointment. These meet together 
weekly for mutual edification and comfort, and to pay 
their weekly dues for the support of the poor and the 
ministry. 

Secondly : — There are the stewards, who take 
charge of the class, quarterly, and sacramental collec- 
tions, and disburse them to the poor and the ministry, 
and are responsible to the quarterly meeting confer- 
ence, from which they receive their appointment, on 
the nomination of the preacher in charge of the cir- 
cuit. 

Thirdly : — There are the exhorters and local preach- 
ers, w T ho, together with the leaders and stewards and 
travelling preachers on the circuit, compose the quar- 
terly meeting conference, from which body exhorters 
and local preachers receive their license to officiate, 
and who recommend preachers to the annual confer- 
ences to be received into the travelling connection. 

Fourthly : — There is the travelling ministry, consist- 
ing of licensed preachers, deacons, elders, and bishops ; 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 349 



and these compose the annual conferences, who have 
the power of receiving preachers, of trying their own 
members, of hearing appeals of local preachers, and 
of carrying into execution the rules of discipline, in 
relation to spreading the gospel by means of an itine- 
rant ministry. 

Fifthly : — The general conference, which assembles 
quadrennially, and is composed of a certain number 
of travelling elders, elected by the annual conferences, 
This is the highest ecclesiastical body known in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. Under certain restric- 
tions which were imposed upon this delegated general 
conference at the time it was organized, in 1808, they 
have the power of revising the discipline, of electing 
the bishops, the editors and agents of the Book Con- 
cern, of hearing appeals from the decisions of annual 
conferences, and of reviewing the whole field of labor, 
whether it be included in the general work, or in the 
missionary department. 

In the sixth place : — the bishops, who derive their of- 
ficial existence from the general conference, superintend 
the whole work, preside in the annual and general 
conferences, perform the ceremony of ordination, and 
appoint the preachers to their several stations. 

In addition to this regular w T ork, in which we behold 
a beautiful gradation of office and order, from the low r est 
to the highest, there is the book establishment, which 
has grown up with the growth of the church, and from 
which are issued a great variety of books on all branches 
of theological knowledge, suited to ministers of the 
gospel, including such as are suited to youth and chil- 
dren, as w T ell as those for Sabbath schools, and a great 
number of tracts for gratuitous distribution by tract 
societies, Bibles and Testaments of various sizes, a 



350 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

quarterly review, and weekly religious papers. This 
establishment is conducted by a suitable number of 
agents and editors, who are elected by the General 
Conference, to which body they are responsible for 
their official conduct, and, in the interval of the Gene- 
ral, the New York Annual Conference exercises a 
supervision of this estimable and highly useful esta- 
blishment. 

In the last place, we may mention the Missionary 
Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which 
was organized in 1819, and has since spread itself, by 
means of auxiliary and branch societies, all over the 
United States and Territories, and, by means of its 
missionaries, has extended its operations among the 
aboriginal tribes of our wildernesses, among the descend- 
ants of Africa in the south, the new and poorer white 
settlements of our country, and also has sent its living 
heralds to Africa, to South America, and to the Ore- 
gon Territory. May its boundaries continually en- 
large ! 

In the work of Sabbath schools, in the establish- 
ment of academies, and colleges, though the latter have 
been but recently commenced with any thing like a de- 
termination to persevere, this church has taken an 
honorable stand among its sister denominations. It 
is to be hoped, nevertheless, that she will go forward 
in this noble w r ork and praiseworthy enterprise, until 
she also shall send out her youthful sons and daughters 
to cultivate that intellectual and moral field which is 
now so widely spread out before us, and which is con- 
tinually enlarging its boundaries, and inviting the 
entrance of faithful laborers. 

This is a general outline of the system, the different 
parts of which have grown out of the exigencies of ths 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



351 



times, suiting itself to the mental, moral, and spiritual 
wants of men, and expanding itself so as to embrace 
the largest possible number of individuals as objects 
of its benevolence. I may well be suspected of par- 
tiality to a system, to the benign operation of which 
I am so much indebted, and which has exerted such 
a beneficial influence upon the best interests of man- 
kind ; but I cannot avoid thinking that I see in it that 
" perfection of beauty, out of which God hath shined," 
and that emanation of divine truth and light, which is 
destined, unless it should unhappily degenerate from 
its primitive beauty and simplicity " into a plant of a 
strange vine," and thus lose its original energy of cha- 
racter, to do its full share in enlightening and convert- 
ing the world. 

Though it has had to contend with the sneers of 
the infidel philosopher, with the taunts of the formalist, 
who trusted chiefly in that external designation to office 
which he flattered himself he had received by a regu- 
lar succession from the apostles, as well as with those 
whose zeal or orthodoxy made them treat Wesleyan 
Methodism as a limb of antichrist, it has so far with- 
stood the violent shocks of opposition from all these 
adverse powers, maintaining the integrity of its cha- 
racter, and pursuing the even tenor of its way, in quest 
of the grand object of its labors, which has been from 
the beginning, and I humbly hope will ever continue 
to be, the salvation of a lost world. 

But my principal design in presenting this rough 
outline of the system was, that the reader might see 
the mutual dependence of its several parts upon each 
other, the true adjustment of its various laborers to 
their several offices and stations, as well as the respon- 
sibilities which grow out of the mutual relations which 



352 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



each member and each officer holds to his fellow, to 
his superior, and to his inferior. I cannot, however, 
pursue this branch of the subject at present. Should 
Providence permit, I have a wish to address a few- 
thoughts to the ministers and members of this church, 
by way of conclusion to what has been said. These 
must of course be reserved for a future time. 



NUMBER XXIX, 

Subordination of ministers one to the other — Duties of each ascer- 
tained by law — Rules, of conduct and judgment — Sanctioned by 
Scripture — St. Paul's analogy taken from the human body — St. 
Peter's exhortation to the different grades in the ministry neces- 
sary to be observed — Private judgment — Individual rights limited 
—How far they must be sacrificed to secure conventional rights — 
New rights and privileges acquired by surrendering individual 
rights — Objections answered — Illustrated by the conduct of Luther 
— He surrendered his private judgment to the word of God — Pro- 
vince of private judgment— Doctrine applied to Methodist minis- 
try — Their reciprocal duties and rights. ' 

It is manifest that the organization of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church recognizes a regular subordination 
among the several orders of the ministry, one to the 
other, requiring duties and conferring privileges pecu- 
liar to each ; and that so long as these duties are 
performed with fidelity, the annexed privileges are 
freely and amply secured and enjoyed, and of course 
the whole system is kept in harmonious and success- 
ful operation. But, to prevent confusion on the one 
hand, and despotism on the other, the duties of each 
are prescribed, and the whole is surrounded with those 
constitutional restraints which limit the powers of each 
officer in the execution of his trust, as well as the 



AX ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



353 



legislative enactments of the General Conference. 
There can, therefore, be no legalized despotism exer- 
cised in any department of the government ; and even 
an abuse of power may be corrected by bringing the 
delinquent to the tribunal to which he is responsible 
for his official conduct. Thus the bishops are held 
accountable to the General Conference, where all their 
official acts pass in review every fourth year. The 
acts of the General Conference are tried by those re- 
strictive regulations which define and limit their pow- 
ers. The presiding elders, elders, deacons, and tra- 
velling preachers are held responsible to their respective 
annual conferences, where their characters are ex- 
amined every year, the decisions of which are guided 
and determined bv rules regularly laid down, and by 
usages of established authority. The local preachers, 
exhorters, and stewards are held accountable to the 
quarterly meeting conferences, where they pass in 
review once every year. The class leaders, who 
receive their office from the preacher in charge 
of the circuit or station, are responsible to him for 
their official conduct, who has power to remove them 
for any delinquency. The private members of the 
church are accountable for their moral and religious 
conduct to their brethren, before whom they are 
brought to answer for any alleged crime or neglect 
of duty. 

In all these several departments regular tribunals 
are constituted, rules of judgment are laid down, and 
the whole process by which the supposed delinquent 
is to be tried, acquitted, or condemned, is clearly de- 
fined and prescribed ; and, as far as is possible, in each 
case, he is tried by his peers, or those of the same 
standing with himself in the chuxch. 



354 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

Now, without pretending to say that every minutia 
of this economy can find an exact precept in Scrip- 
ture for its support, or supposing that this is necessary 
to justify each prescribed form and usage, I think the 
whole outline is fully recognized and sanctioned by 
that high authority. Let the reader who wishes to 
see a general portrait of the character of the church 
drawn out by the pencil of inspiration, as one compact 
body made up of its several appropriate members,— and 
the necessity of each one's acting in its proper place, 
individually, and yet in haimony with its fellow mem- 
bers, consult the 12th chapter of St. Paul's first 
epistle to the Corinthians, from the 4th to the 30th 
verse inclusive. Here will he see exemplified, in a 
most beautiful and appropriate analogy between the 
human body and the church, the mutual dependence 
of the several members of Christ's mystical body one 
upon another, and the absolute necessity for each one 
to submit to its station, and to perform its relative 
duties, in order to keep up the healthy action of the 
entire body, so as to accomplish the greatest amount 
of good, and to secure the perfect harmony of the sys- 
tem. As from the head the impetus proceeds which 
gives thought, animation, and action to every limb of 
the human body, so from Christ as the supreme Head 
of the church, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, 
spiritual life and energy are given to the several mem- 
bers of the church, by obeying the impulse of which 
they all move on, from " apostles, prophets, and 
teachers," to " helps and governments," and through 
all the minuter branches of this compact spiritual body, 
in a most beautiful and harmonious gradation, exhibit- 
ing, in this lively and energetic action, that perfection 
of beauty out of which God shines, and through 



AX ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 355 

which he sheds the light of his glory to all the world 
around. 

But for the more express command of God in re- 
spect to this sort of subordination in the several grades 
in the church, let the reader consult the following pas- 
sage from St. Peter :• — >" The elders which are among 
you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of 
the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the 
glory that shall be revealed : Feed the flock of God 
which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not 
by constraint, but willingly ; not for filthy lucre, but 
of a ready mind ; neither as being lords over God's 
heritage, but being ensamples to the flock : and when 
the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a 
crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye 
younger, submit yourselves unto the elder ; yea, all 
of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with 
humility ; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth 
grace to the humble." 

Here is manifestly prescribed the order which God 
has established for the well being of his church, and 
without the observance of which there can be no well- 
regulated society, no harmony of co-operation, and no 
efficient government. And the apostle intimates that 
those who resist this order, or that rise in rebellion 
against this subordination, exhibit that pride of heart 
which calls for resistance on the part of God : " for 
God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the 
humble." As pride is distinguished by a rebellion 
against the constituted authorities of the church,, and 
will meet with its merited punishment, so humility is 
no less distinguished by a proper submission to these 
authorities, and when thus exercised will meet with a 
gracious acceptance in the sight of God. 



356 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

Here it may be expedient to stop with a view to 
obviate an objection which arises out of the doc- 
trine of private judgment and individual rights. No 
man, I presume to think, values those rights and this 
judgment, more highly than I do ; and yet I cannot 
but believe that both the one and the other have been 
misunderstood by many, and, as a consequence, per- 
verted for base and selfish purposes. 

This right of private judgment has been harped 
upon in a thoughtless manner, until every member of 
the community, almost every child who begins to 
think at all, has come to the conclusion, as erroneous 
as it is destructive to the peace of society, that he has 
a right to exercise his own private judgment in all 
things pertaining to himself and others, however op- 
posite it may be to the expressed will of the majority, 
or to the decisions of the community to which he be- 
longs. But is this so ? Has each individual this 
right ? I think not. It must, assuredly, be under- 
stood with many limitations, and in a qualified sense. 

That every rational man has a right to think for 
himself, and to express his thoughts freely, is not dis- 
puted. And considered in an isolated capacity, as a 
simple individual, untrammelled by those laws origi- 
nating from social relations, he has the right to the 
most perfect, the most unrestrained exercise of his 
private judgment. But the moment he enters into 
society he obliges himself to surrender a portion of 
his individual rights as a mere private citizen, in 
order to secure the privileges of a social being, a 
member of civil and religious society. So, whenever 
a man becomes a member of a church, he binds him- 
self to abide by the doctrines and moral restraints of 
that church, and is no longer at liberty to exercise his 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 357 

private judgment in opposition to its standards, and to 
those regulations by which ministers and members 
have bound themselves to be governed. If he has 
become convinced that there are errors in doctrine and 
discipline to which he cannot subscribe, his only alter- 
native, if he cannot peaceably effect an alteration, is to 
declare his dissent and silently withdraw. 

But in surrendering his private judgment, he re- 
ceives more than an equivalent for the sacrifice he 
makes. In the first place, as he is a fallible being, 
and as such liable to err, he has the advantage of the 
united wisdom of many, perhaps all wiser than him- 
self. By surrendering up his judgment, therefore, to 
the judgment of others, he is likely to gain much 
more than he loses, inasmuch as " in the multitude 
of counsellors there is safety." But in becoming a 
member of a true church of Christ, he gains a thou- 
sand fold for the small sacrifice he makes. He is 
now brought within the covenant of his God, is en 
titled to all the privileges of the gospel, to those pro- 
mises of pardon, protection, and consolation, which 
belong to none others, in that peculiar sense in which 
they belong to him and to all his fellow heirs of sal- 
vation. And he who thinks the sacrifice of his private 
judgment in respect to some things is too great to 
secure blessings of such inestimable value, has made 
too low an estimate of the privileges of church fel- 
lowship. 

So also that minister who connects himself with 
the ministry of a Christian church, by that very act, 
agrees to surrender his right of private judgment to 
the dictates of those doctrines and rules of moral and 
religious conduct by which those ministers have agreed 
to regulate their faith and practice. Hence he is not 



358 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

at liberty, so long as he remains associated with 
them, to interpose his individual judgment against the 
united decisions of the body. But what has he ac- 
quired ? He has now the united counsel, the fellow- 
ship, and the privileges peculiar to the minister of the 
Lord Jesus. To retain these he cheerfully submits 
to the restraints of his situation, to the new duties 
arising from that subordination which is essential to 
the peace and harmony of the body to which he be- 
longs, and to the honors and emoluments which are 
peculiar to the minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. To 
illustrate my meaning here : — In some states, a 
minister of the Lord Jesus is denied the privilege of 
being a member of the legislature, or of holding any 
civil office of honor and trust. And, in numerous 
instances, in times of high political excitement, a re- 
gard to the interests of the church which he serves 
induces him to deny himself the right of suffrage at 
the polls. Those rights which he enjoyed simply 
as a citizen, he cheerfully sacrifices, for the sake of 
securing others which he considers of much more value 
to him as a minister of the sanctuary, and which he 
can use to much more advantage to his fellow men. 
Now for these sacrifices he receives much more than 
an equivalent. Though disfranchised in respect to 
holding civil offices — a wise regulation in my opinion 
— he has the privilege of solemnizing matrimony, of 
burying the dead, of preaching the gospel of peace, of 
being exempt from military duty, and of serving as a 
juror, and, in some states, of paying taxes to a certain 
amount of property. In addition to these exemptions 
and privileges, he has the emoluments, such as they 
are, which indeed are small enough in the Methodist 
Church, connected with his office, and all the honor, 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 359 

though sometimes mingled with reproach, generally 
paid to a devoted, upright, and laborious minister of 
Jesus Christ. To say nothing of those spiritual 
blessings which are connected with his high and holy 
office, and which always accompany his labors, these 
are privileges which by far overbalance any sacrifice 
which he is called to make in order to secure them. 

The same remarks will apply to individual rights. 
As a mere human rational being, every man has the 
right, being held responsible to his God for his con- 
duct, of dictating what he will do, of controlling him- 
self in all things, of disposing of himself, and of his 
property — if indeed it can be said that he holds any 
in this state — as it may please him. But the moment 
he becomes a member of civil society he holds a dif- 
ferent relation, and from this relation grow new laws, 
new duties, and new privileges. He must now submit 
to laws imposed by the majority, or by those to whom 
the power of legislation is delegated ; — to those laws 
he is now pledged to submit, and for doing this he 
becomes entitled to privileges to which he had before 
no right. The same may be said in respect to all 
those who become members and ministers in a reli- 
gious community. Some of their individual rights as 
citizens must be sacrificed, that they may enjoy others, 
far more valuable, indeed, which arise out of their 
new relation, as members and ministers of the church 
of Christ. This must be evident and plain to every 
reflecting mind, and therefore I need not enlarge 
upon it. 

Against this view of the subject I anticipate some 
objections. It has frequently been -said that we are 
indebted to the exercise of private judgment and in- 
dividual rights for the lights and blessings of the 



360 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

reformation. I doubt this* Let us examine it a little. 
Let us select Luther as our example. Was he guided 
in his holy and bold enterprise by the dictates of his 
own private judgment in the exercise of his individual 
rights ? I think otherwise. Luther was a member 
of the church and of a civil community. He enjoyed 
therefore all the helps and privileges to be derived 
from his social relations. Guided by these helps, and 
prompted by a mind that had been enlarged and 
refined by an education for which he was indebted to 
the society in which he lived, he was led, by reading 
the New Testament, first to suspect the correctness 
of certain dogmas and practices of the Church of 
Rome. As he read on, and searched for himself, 
light poured into his mind, until he became thoroughly 
convinced of the errors of popery, and that it was his 
duty to renounce them at once and for ever. Was 
this the result of his own private judgment ? By no 
means. He yielded his judgment, entirely and im- 
plicitly, to the will of God, as it was announced in 
his word. This now became the guide of his mind, 
and the rule of his decisions. Had he followed the 
dictates of his own judgment, unaided and unenlight- 
ened by the revelation of God's word and will, or in 
opposition to it, the lights of the reformation would 
never have been poured upon the world by his instru- 
mentality. But by surrendering his understanding to 
the dictates of God's word, the pages of which were 
illuminated by that eternal Spirit which garnisheth 
the heavens, he was gradually conducted away from 
the errors and abominations of popery, and gently led 
into all the paths of gospel peace and simplicity. 

But while I thus contend for a surrender of private 
judgment and individual rights in order to secure those 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 361 

conventional rights which are far more valuable, there 
are certain limits within which private judgment is 
permitted to operate, and individual rights are held 
sacred. Every rational being has certain inalienable 
rights w r hich he may not surrender, and a certain pro- 
vince within which he is not only at liberty to exer- 
cise his private judgment, but it is his indispensable 
duty so to do. Suppose, for instance, the doctrines, 
discipline, and usages of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church are presented to the consideration of an 
individual for his belief and acceptance — in their 
examination he must exercise his ow r n private judg- 
ment, comparing them with the word of God and the 
light of reason. In doing this he acts on his own 
individual responsibility, as one who must give an 
account of himself to God. Having thus exercised 
himself in the use of those powers with which his 
Creator hath endued him, if he make up his judgment 
in favor of this discipline, and those doctrines and 
usages, he will feel himself impelled, from a convic- 
tion of truth and duty, to embrace them, and to make 
them the rule of his faith and practice ever after. He 
now enters into a new relation, comes under new ob- 
ligations, and in return receives new privileges. He 
is no longer a simple citizen, enjoying the civil rights 
of his country, but he has become a member of a 
church, and, so far as respects the doctrines, discipline, 
and usages of that church, he is no longer at liberty 
to oppose his own individual rights and private judg- 
ments to the judgment and rights of the community 
into which he has entered, and by the laws of which 
he has promised to abide. Still, however, he exer- 
cises his own judgment, and avails himself of his 
personal rights, in every thing comprehended within 

16 



362 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST* 

the circle of moral and religious duty not specifically- 
prescribed as an article of faith or a rule of practice. 

These remarks have been made to show the man- 
ner in which a conference of Methodist preachers are 
bound together, and are thereby brought under con- 
ventional obligations, to which they were exempt as 
citizens merely of this republic, and also simply as 
private members of the church. In order to secure 
the immunities of travelling ministers, to discharge, 
to the greatest possible advantage in their estimation, 
the functions of their office, and to entitle themselves 
to the singular privileges of ambassadors of Jesus 
Christ, they have agreed to surrender up certain 
individual rights which they possessed as citizens 
merely, or as private members of the church, and to 
pledge themselves to each other not to violate those 
conventional obligations under which they have reci- 
procally bound themselves as articles of faith, and 
rules of moral, religious, and ministerial duty. Against 
these they are not at liberty to speak, preach, or 
write. Nay, they are sacredly pledged, by the most 
solemn of all obligations, to defend, enforce, and 
practise them. And without the redemption of this 
pledge, by the observance of these duties, there can 
be no peace and union in the body, no harmonious 
action, nor any such co-operation as shall accomplish 
the end of their association. The only alternative 
is, if any one is convinced, by a prayerful attention 
to his duties, that he is in an error- — that the system 
is wrong — or that any one part of it needs altera- 
tion — after having failed in a constitutional effort to 
correct the error,— to improve the system, or to 
produce the change — to assign his reasons for his 
dissent, and quietly withdraw. If he think his own 



AX ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



363 



private judgment superior to the united judgment of 
his brethren, and that his individual rights as a citi- 
zen are preferable, more valuable to him than those 
conventional rights which grow out of his social and 
ministerial relation, he must abandon the latter in 
order to secure the former. But a man ought to 
ponder long upon his ways, to deliberate calmly and 
dispassionately, before he comes to the solemn con- 
clusion, that he will throw away the rights he has 
acquired as a minister of Christ, abandon his privi- 
leges, and forfeit all his spiritual and temporal immu- 
nities, in order to enjoy the simple rights and 
privileges of a private citizen, or of an individual 
minister, cut off from the communion of his brethren. 
Such a sacrifice, I apprehend, will be found much 
greater than the one he made when he entered the 
itinerant field, and became a member of the asso- 
ciation. 

NUMBER XXX. 

Sources of danger to the church— How to guard against them— 
Purity and clearness of her doctrines to be adhered to — Discipline 
enforced— The itinerancy preserved— The grands of Methodism 
—The salvation of the world to be kept in view— How this may be 
kept or lost— Mere speculations must be avoided, and duty per- 
formed. 

Having completed what I have to say in respect to 
the organization, orders, and powers of the ministry, 
I beg permission to address a few thoughts to the 
ministers and members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. In doing this, I desire to speak with that 
deference to the judgment of others which becomes 
one who has but little to claim in point of seniority, 
and much less in respect to learning and experience. 



364 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

I speak merely as a friend who wishes well to om 
beloved Zion, and who ardently prays for her peace 
and prosperity. 

If there be any weight in the testimonies and argu 
ments which have been adduced in the preceding 
numbers, we need have no fear from the assaults of 
our adversaries in respect to the stability of our insti- 
tutions, so long as we are faithful to our trust in 
guarding the sacred deposit committed to our care by 
our fathers, and in improving upon the privileges to 
which we have been exalted. The danger lies " in 
departing from the living God" — in confiding more in 
men and means than we do in Him who has " called 
us to glory and virtue"— and in suffering ourselves to 
be carried away in the current of popular errors, or 
to be ingulfed in the riches and honors of this world. 

1. In the first place, I presume to think that no 
people, since the apostolic days, have been blessed 
with such clear expositions of gospel truth as we have 
been. Those whom God honored as the instruments 
of establishing our church were not ignorant men. 
They were, in every sense of the word, wise and 
learned. But, in addition to this, they were eminently 
pious. They had a deep and genuine experience in 
the things of God, having them sealed upon their con- 
sciences by the Holy Ghost. Whenever, therefore, 
they spoke, they spoke of the " things which they had 
felt and seen." 

Where else, in any human writings, will you find 
such clear and able expositions and defences of the 
doctrine of human depravity, the nature and necessity 
of repentance, justification by faith in the atoning blood 
of Jesus Christ, the witness and fruits of the Spirit, 
the doctrine of holiness of heart and life, and the ne- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 365 

cessity of persevering in every good word and work, 
as are found in the writings of Wesley and Fletcher, 
and of many other Wesleyan Methodists who might 
be mentioned ? In the sermons and tracts of Wesley, 
in the hymns published by him and his brother, in the 
writings of Fletcher, Benson, Clarke, and others, 
not only the above doctrines are set forth and defended 
with a perspicuity and energy seldom if ever equalled 
in any human compositions, but also the proper Deity 
of Christ, the attributes of God, his law and govern- 
ment, the dispensations of his providence and grace, 
and all those collateral truths which grow out of the 
cardinal principles of divine revelation, whether they 
relate to our duty to God or man, are illustrated in a 
language peculiarly plain and pointed, so that he who 
runs may read and understand. In the writings of 
Wesley especially — for I greatly prefer his to all 
others — the reader is led, almost whether he will or 
no, to an examination of his own heart, to an inspec- 
tion of his life, and, if he be not hardened beyond 
recovery, to a loathing of himself before God ; nor 
will he, if he follow his convictions, allow himself to 
rest until he surrenders himself a willing captive to. 
that truth with which his mind has become enlightened 
and his heart affected. 

To these doctrines, therefore, I would say, adhere. 
In respect to these, we have only to inquire for the 
" old paths," and to " walk therein," in order to " find 
rest to our souls." 

2. In the second place, look at that moral disci^ 
pline which has been handed down to us from the 
same source. " The General Rules of the United 
Societies" contain, in a few well-chosen sentences, all 
those rules of moral and religious conduct which are 



366 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

requisite to guide us into the " paths of peace and 
righteousness." I rejoice that these are declared, by 
the restrictive regulations which limit the powers of 
the General Conference, unalterable ; for I am well 
convinced that they never can be altered for the better, 
nor emended so as to make them more intelligible, 
except it be to restore one item, which has been altered 
for the worse, to that state in which Wesley left it — 
I mean that respecting drunkenness. So long as we 
adhere to those doctrines, and conform our lives to 
these rules, I cannot see any reason for " error in 
doctrine, or viciousness in life." 

3. The method of propagating these doctrines and 
enforcing these rules, by an itinerant ministry, with 
all those auxiliaries afforded us by class leaders,, 
stewards, exhorters, and local preachers, is admirably 
adapted to give a diffusive spread to the gospel of God 
our Saviour, and to build up the people in holy living. 
This method of preaching the gospel, "of establishing 
and regulating the societies, gave origin to certain re- 
gulations somewhat peculiar to the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, and which are necessary to be observed 
in order to keep the whole system in motion, so as to 
preserve the harmonious action of its several parts, 
And in the extension of the work, it has been found 
expedient so to modify some of those external features 
of the system as to meet the exigencies of the times, 
and take advantage of the improvements of the age, 
and to reach the greatest possible portion of mankind 
with the benign influences of religion. These ap- 
pendages, which have grown out of the circumstances 
of the times, so far from touching any of the vital 
principles of the system, are only calculated to give 
them a wider expansion, to diffuse them abroad with 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



367 



greater energy, and to maintain them with more force 
and permanency. Thus the enlargement of our work, 
the increase of our Book Establishment, the introduc- 
tion of periodical literature, the ingrafting upon the 
parent stock the Missionary Society, the founding and 
maintaining academies and colleges, have created a 
necessity for new regulations, in order to sustain all 
these institutions, and to carry them forward with 
energy and success. The flourishing state of these 
branches shows that the vital principle in the original 
trunk is by no means exhausted, but that, being 
w rooted and grounded" in a prolific soil, and watered 
continually bv the " dew of heaven, 5 ' it is constantly 
enlarging its dimensions, multiplying its branches, and 
vet so supported as to be able to withstand the shocks 
of every adverse wind. 

Indeed, the grand principle of Methodism from the 
beginning was, to lay fast hold of the cardinal doc- 
trines of Christianity, with a determination never to 
unloose the hold, and then to adopt all those means to 
diffuse them among mankind, which the developments 
of time and circumstances should dictate to be neces- 
sarv and expedient. On this principle it has ever 
acted. Whoever will read its history with attention, 
will perceive this principle unfolding itself in every 
step of its progress, from the time its original germ 
began to shoot forth in Oxford, down to the death of 
its founder. And it is only by following out this same 
principle, holding fast the grand doctrines of Christ as 
immutable, and at the same time embracing every 
opening of Providence for its extension, by the adop- 
tion and use of all those means which are sanctioned 
by the word of God, that the greatest amount of good 
can be fully realized. 



368 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

Under the firm conviction that God has signally 
owned and blessed this system, it is affectionately 
urged upon all concerned to hold it fast, and to yield to 
no temptation to sacrifice any of its principles to please 
the world or to gratify the caprice or whims of any 
party of men ; and, at the same time, to embrace 
every opportunity, and to adopt every lawful means, for 
extending its influence among the apostate sons of 
men. 

The grand end which Wesley proposed in all his 
labors was the salvation of sinners. To accomplish 
this he sacrificed his prejudices, his ease, his worldly 
prospects, and devoted his time and talents entirely 
and exclusively to the work of God, This was his 
one w T ork. Whatever means he thought, after mature 
and prayerful deliberation, would conduce to the at- 
tainment of this end, he adopted, and applied himself 
to their use with all his might. Whether he read, 
preached, or prayed — whether he established classes, 
formed circuits, employed lay-preachers, called con- 
ferences, printed books, collected money, or founded 
a school, all were enlisted in this grand cause, and 
made tributary to the attainment of his primary object 
— the salvation of the world. And hence whatever 
retarded him in this course, or tended to defeat his 
main design, he rejected, let the sacrifice be ever so 
costly. 

It was on the same principle that he was led, so 
contrary to his first determination, to adopt measures 
for the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in this country. He saw, as with a prophetic eye, a 
rising country, filling up with inhabitants, and teeming 
with immortal souls who needed the bread of life, and 
the ordinances of the gospel. To provide these in 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 369 

due time, he sacrificed his prepossessions in favor of 
the legal establishment, to which he was wedded, and 
exerted himself in the organization of a church, ac- 
cording to the principles, and under the circumstances 
heretofore explained. In doing this, his mind was not 
dazzled with the false glare of worldly honors, fame, 
or temporal aggrandizement, but acted under the im- 
pulses of the same heart which always panted for the 
present and future happiness of mankind. This was 
the man, and this was his work. And what have we 
to do but to follow in his steps ? This, indeed, is the 
very thing which I would urge upon myself and all my 
readers. So long as we keep this one object in view^ 
to promote holiness in ourselves and others, we may 
expect the blessing of God to accompany our labors. 
But if we turn aside from this, our " fine gold will 
become dim," and " all our pleasant things" will be 
changed into bitterness. 

We have seen, in the preceding numbers, that the 
organization of our church, and the manner of ordain- 
ing our ministry, are easily defensible by Scriptural 
arguments. But if we should lose our spirituality, 
and sink into a spirit of lukewarmness, God will write 
Ichabod upon all our borders, because the glory will 
then have departed from us. In that case, we might 
in vain plead that we have had Wesley for our 
founder. Like the Jews, we might glory in the 
wisdom and piety of our fathers in the church, while 
we ourselves may have become as " whited sepul- 
chres, full of dead men's bones." It is essential, 
therefore, for the preservation of our spirituality, that 
our motives be kept pure, and that our " single eye" 
be constantly fixed on the great end of our calling, 
which is the salvation of a lost world. And that such 

16* 



370 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

a system as ours may be kept in harmonious and 
vigorous action, continual sacrifices must be made, 
particularly by the members of our conferences, of 
individual interests, of personal ease and accommoda- 
tion, as well as of a pecuniary nature. Mutual con- 
cessions of judgment must be made, reciprocal rights 
exchanged, and a constant exercise of that fraternal 
feeling which enables us to " bear one another's bur- 
dens, and so fulfil the royal law," It has been by 
the voluntary and cheerful sacrifices of this character, 
that the system has been hitherto preserved in peace 
and purity, and that the amount of good has been real- 
ized which is now so evident to every observing 
mind. 

Let us, therefore, endeavor to be " steadfast, im- 
moveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
inasmuch as we know that our labor is not in vain in 
the Lord." With the speculations on new doctrines 
and theories we have nothing to do. We may indeed 
be led by Divine Providence into new fields of labor : 
but if we would labor successfully, it must be with 
the well-tried means with which we have heretofore 
been so much blessed. The inventors of new theories* 
and the innovators upon established doctrines and 
usages, have " spent their strength for naught," while 
the true sons of Wesley have "gone forth," it maybe 
"weeping," but have returned "with joy, bringing 
their sheaves with them." The wide world is before 
us, and with the word of God in our hands, and its 
Wesleyan expositions by its side, provided we are 
animated and strengthened by that eternal Spirit which 
garnished the heavens, we may go on from conquer- 
ing to conquer, until the " kingdoms of this world 
shall become the kingdoms of God and of his Christ." 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 371 

NUMBER XXXI. 

God's design in raising up the Methodists— To spread holiness — 
This object should be kept in view — Faith, experience, and obe- 
dience must be united — This the end of the Christian ministry- 
Such a ministry must be supported — The people exhorted to libe- 
rality in support of Missionary, Bible, Tract, Sunday School, and 
Literary Institutions — Liberality essential to prevent the deleteri- 
ous effects of riches — An expansive benevolence consistent with a 
zealous attachment to our own peculiarities — Difference between 
2, love of sect and sectarianism — How exemplified — Exhortation to 
a catholic, liberal, and steadfast conduct. 

With a few words to the members of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, I shall bring these numbers to 
a close. That God has wrought wonders for us as a 
people, no one who is at all acquainted with our his- 
tory, and acknowledges at the same time that he does 
now work upon the hearts of men, will be disposed to 
question. The first heralds of Methodism went " out 
into the highways and hedges," and became instru- 
mental in raising up those who " were no people to 
become the people of God." And we have seen that 
the simple object of forming them into societies, was 
to raise a holy people. To form a sect never entered 
into the thoughts of Wesley at the commencement of 
his ministry, nor any of his coadjutors. It was not 
from a dissatisfaction with the organization of the 
church to which he belonged that Wesley was led 
forth into that field of labor of which he became such 
a distinguished cultivator. It was a dissatisfaction 
with himself. As he says, he began by condemning 
himself. And having passed sentence of condemna- 
tion upon himself, he set about the work of reforming 
his own heart and life. Having, through the agency 
of the Holy Spirit, effected this great work, his next 
object was to reform others from the error of their 



372 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST, 

ways. I say from the error of their ways ; for when 
he commenced his evangelical ministry, it was not so 
much with a view to reform men's opinions in theology, 
as it was to reform their hearts and lives, and thus to 
bring them to the obedience of Jesus Christ. That 
he was afterward led into a discussion of doctrinal 
truths, was a result which arose incidentally out of his 
course by the adverse conduct of his enemies, instead 
of its entering into his primary and main design* 
Hence the experimental and practical bearing of all 
his writings, his controversial not excepted. 

Now, what I wish is, to impress upon all the im- 
portance of keeping this object constantly before our 
minds. It is, to be sure, important that our creed 
should be orthodox. It is not without reason that 
God has taken such special pains to reveal to us the 
truths which we are called upon to believe. No 
man, I think, who duly appreciates the volume of 
divine revelation, will say that it is a matter of in- 
difference whether or not he believe in the Divinity 
of Christ, and in the atonement which he made for the 
sins of the world, the necessity of repentance and re- 
generation ; because a man's practice is always influ- 
enced in a greater or lesser degree by his faith ; but 
that which is not less important than the above is a 
full belief in those truths which have a direct bearing 
upon our experience and practice. Whatever a man 
believes theoretically, unless he be made a partaker 
of the grace of God by faith in Jesus Christ, he can- 
not be saved. And whatever he may profess to ex- 
perience, however high may be his raptures or loud 
his professions, unless he bring forth the fruit of the 
Spirit, and prove the soundness of his experience by 
keeping the commandments of God, we have a right 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 373 

to conclude that he has deceived himself. Nor will 
sincerity excuse him. This, to be sure, will exempt 
him from the condemnation and disgrace of a hypocrite : 
but it will not atone for a deficiency in his religious 
experience and practice. It may be a plea in favor 
of his being in the way which leads to spiritual life ; 
but it cannot serve as a substitute for that holiness of 
heart and life which is essential to constitute the 
Christian character, and which alone qualifies a man 
for the pure enjoyments of heaven. 

Whatever, therefore, may be the soundness with 
which we may vindicate our claims to the gospel 
ministry, unless that ministry be made subservient to 
the attainment of these ends, it will prove but a 
" sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." This, in- 
deed, has been the professed object of this ministry 
from the beginning ; and while it continues to be such 
in reality, it may expect the blessing of God upon its 
labors, and no longer. 

If, however, I have succeeded in vindicating the 
claims of this ministry to a Divine call ; if it give 
evidence of possessing those qualifications which are 
essential to the character of a divinely instituted 
ministry ; then it becomes the people to whom they 
are sent to receive them as the ambassadors of God^ 
and to give them all the support which is needful to 
enable them to follow their calling without worldly 
embarrassment. It is allowed that it is the duty of 
all ministers of Jesus Christ to devote themselves 
without reserve to their peculiar work. But those 
who do this cannot attend to those secular concerns 
which are necessary to procure a temporal livelihood.. 
They must therefore be dependent on the people to 
whom they administer " in spiritual things" for those 



374 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



u carnal things" which they, equally with all others* 
need for the support of themselves and their 
families. 

This is peculiarly necessary for an itinerant ministry. 
Whatever might be the disposition, it is certain that 
neither the ability nor opportunity exists for such a 
ministry to attend to a farming, mechanical, mercantile, 
or any other profession, in order to procure a liveli- 
hood. Their very calling, therefore, precludes the 
uniting of secular business with it, without destroying 
its peculiar character, and of course its usefulness. 

In perfect conformity to these views, the framers 
of that part of our Discipline which relates to our 
temporal economy have advised the building of par- 
sonages, and of providing them with heavy furniture, 
that whenever a preacher is moved from one circuit 
to another, he may have as little to burden him in his 
removal as possible. Though this requisition is par- 
tially attended to in some places, yet its entire neglect 
in most others is one of the most serious impediments 
in the way of an itinerant ministry, and must, unless 
the evil be remedied, very much retard, if it do not 
entirely stop, the wheels of the itinerancy. Economy 
itself would dictate the utility of adopting this policy. 
The expense of moving furniture from one place to 
another, the injury it must necessarily suffer by such 
removals, would soon meet the entire expense of pur- 
chasing those articles which are of permanent use, 
and most burdensome to remove. Were convenient 
houses furnished in every circuit and station, and these 
provided with heavy furniture, the changes of preachers 
from one place to another would be comparatively light 
and easy, and more especially so, were a competent 
provision made for their support. 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 375 

It is manifest that in all the great enterprises of the 
day, the hearty co-operation of the membership of the 
church is essential to their success. It is a pleasing 
thought that these have sprung up as fruits of that 
benevolence which the gospel inspires. Since the 
great revival of true godliness which commenced early 
in the eighteenth century under the labors of Wesley 
and his coadjutors, all those institutions of benevolence, 
Missionary, Bible, Tract, and Sunday school societies, 
have come into existence, and are now exerting, 
through the united labors of the several denominations 
of Christians, their saving and hallowing influences 
upon the community. These must be carried forward, 
not as substitutes for that gospel which is their parent, 
but as its dutiful sons and daughters, and as powerful 
auxiliaries to the " ministry of reconciliation." These, 
together with those seminaries of learning which are 
designed for training our youth in literature and science^ 
need the united energies of preachers and people to 
keep them in successful operation, to enlarge their 
boundaries and capabilities of usefulness, and give 
them that elevated character and permanent foundation 
which will secure for them the public confidence, and 
perpetuate their standing and means of doing good to 
the present and future generations. 

Let no one say that this is imposing too heavy 
burdens upon the people. They need no such 
apology. The spirit of the w r orld, the desire of riches^ 
the love of splendor, and a covetous disposition, are 
more likely to betray us into a forgetfulness of God, 
to. loosen our sense of obligation to him, and to weaken 
the force of moral and religious principle, than the 
spirit of benevolence is to impair our perceptions of 
the claims of justice, or to diminish our means of doing 



376 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

good to the souls and bodies of men, or of bringing 
that poverty which is the poor man's destruction. 

The fact is, that the Methodists are in more danger, 
at the present time, of being corrupted by riches, than 
they are of being impoverished by acts of benevolence. 
In common with others in our country, where industry 
and economy are contributing to increase their worldly 
substance, the Methodists are becoming more and 
more wealthy, and are thereby in equal danger with 
others of being swallowed up "with the cares and 
riches of this world.'' It may therefore be considered 
a mercy to the church, that avenues for more exten- 
sive usefulness are opening before us, to drain off our 
superfluous wealth, that it may not be a means of 
leading us " into divers snares and temptations, which 
drown the soul in perdition." The wise man has said, 
" If riches increase, set not thy heart upon them." 
And the inspired writers all along speak of riches, 
under a deep conviction of their corrupting influence 
upon the morals of mankind, and of their deteriorating 
effects upon the spiritual health of the soul, declaring^ 
most plainly and pointedly, that they " eat as doth a 
canker," and that they naturally tend to induce men 
who have much of earthly treasure to set their hearts 
upon it as their chief good. 

And yet pure religion naturally leads to wealth. 
By inspiring a spirit of industry and economy, lead- 
ing to a retrenchment of all extravagance in living, 
unless the religious man have some outlet for his 
surplus wealth, he must hoard it up for ""those who 
come after him, whether they be wise men or fools." 
Unless, therefore, this man give in proportion to the 
increase of his property, his riches will eat out his 
religion, and thus destroy its own existence by the 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 377 



very means it furnishes its disciples with to accumu- 
late wealth. Hence, to prevent such a catastrophe, 
its precepts are every way consistent with its own 
character, that the rich are to remember the poor, 
whom they have always with them. Indeed, it is only 
by complying with this divine command, by dispers- 
ing abroad and giving to the poor, that pure religion 
can be preserved in the heart of him who increases 
in wealth and abounds in the good things of this world. 
He must use this wealth to the glory of its Giver, by 
contributing to advance His cause in the earth. 

Here, then, is one way of preserving ourselves as 
a church from apostatizing from purity and spirit- 
uality. By means of our ministry God has raised 
up a numerous people, spread over the length and 
breadth of the land. That religion which they have 
embraced, by teaching them industry and economy, 
has enabled many of them to become wealthy. God 
has also opened before us a w r ide door for extended 
usefulness, among the poorer settlements of our coun- 
try, among the savages of our wildernesses, and in 
foreign lands. Here is a loud call upon them for 
an exercise of their charity. Here, indeed, is ample 
room and an imperious demand for the application, 
in the best possible way, of those temporal means 
with which the God of providence and grace hath 
intrusted them. Let all those therefore who love 
God, and are sighing and praying for the salvation 
of the world, after supplying their own wants, pour 
their surplus revenue into the Lord's treasury, that 
those w r aste and dreary deserts may be cultivated, 
and be made to blossom as the rose. We have in- 
deed abundant reason to thank God that this spirit 
of benevolence, so characteristic of the Christian, and 



378 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

so necessary to keep up and extend the Redeemers 
kingdom, has been strikingly manifested in the con 
duct of many of our brethren and friends. Thou- 
sands of heathen have already " praised God for the 
consolation" sent unto them by the united exertions 
of the missionary and his supporters. Only let the 
good work go on, increase, and spread, and the world 
shall soon be full of the knowledge of God. 

The same remarks will apply to our literary, as 
well as to all our domestic institutions. These are 
instituted, I verily believe, under the call of Provi- 
dence, not only for the benefit of the youth who 
are therein educated and trained, but also that our 
people might have a "place where to bestow their 
goods," and thereby save themselves from that moral 
contamination which riehes, improperly applied, na- 
turally induce. What a vast amount of good may 
those do to themselves and to future generations who 
have wealth at their command ! Let them " make 
to themselves friends with this mammon of unrighte- 
ousness," and then, instead of its proving a curse 
by its abuse, it will become a means of enlarging 
their own hearts, of exciting a spirit of sympathy 
for the poor, of sending the gospel to the destitute, 
and of training up youth for future usefulness in 
the church and in the world. 

It may, perhaps, be said by some, that these num- 
bers are sectarian in their character, and therefore 
cannot be productive of that generous and expansive 
benevolence which the gospel of Jesus Christ in* 
spires. To this I would answer, that though they 
are designed to vindicate a sect, they are by no 
means sectarian. If, in vindicating the sect whose 
cause they plead, and whose ministry they have at- 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



379 



tempted to defend, they had condemned all others 
as spurious, schismatical, or heretical, they would be 
justly chargeable with sectarianism. This, however,, 
they have scrupulously and most conscientiously 
avoided. Without presuming to call in question 
the validity of the ministry of other churches, to 
deny their orthodoxy, or to impeach their character 
as Christians, they have aimed simply to justify the 
proceedings of a much abused man of God, and of 
that ministry which he was instrumental in establish- 
ing. They are therefore purely defensive, so far as 
these points are concerned ; and if, in the course of 
the discussion, some animadversions have been made 
upon the practices of the church whose writers have 
called forth this defence, they have arisen from the 
necessity the author felt to be faithful in all things 
according to his best judgment, and not from an in- 
dulgence of that exclusive spirit which condemns all 
others except his own. 

Had, indeed, these numbers assumed the high 
ground that the ministrations of all other denomi- 
nations were spurious, because their ministers had 
not been called and consecrated according to our 
views of canonical order, there might be just reason 
for accusing them of an exceptionable sectarianism. 
But they have been very far from setting up this 
Procrustean bed, and requiring all others to stretch 
or shorten themselves to its length, in order to entitle 
themselves to enjoy its benefits. Their object has 
been, not to condemn others, but to defend our- 
selves. We may see therefore the difference between 
advocating the claims of a sect, and a sectarian ex- 
clusiveness. While the former is perfectly com- 
patible with the liberal spirit of Christianity, the 



380 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

latter diminishes its peculiar glory, and settles down 
into a selfish bigotry, which saith to all others, 
" Stand by, for I am holier than thou." 

In pleading, therefore, for a conformity to our doc- 
trines and discipline, and for a generous and hearty 
support of our religious and literary institutions, we 
do not utter any proscriptions against those who may 
dissent from us, or who may even condemn us as 
schismatics and as intruders into the fold of Christ. 
We only say, If they are Israelites, so are we. If 
they are zealous for God, and are striving to spread 
abroad his " saving health among all nations/' we 
presume to think that we will not be a whit behind 
them in this respect. And while we most heartily 
wish them " God speed" in every evangelical effort 
they may make to increase the amount of human 
happiness, we are solicitous to share in the honor 
of contributing our quota in " subduing the world 
to the obedience of Christ." 

I know that we have been often accused of in- 
dulging in sectarian bigotry, because we have pre- 
sumed to defend ourselves when assailed by others. 
But is this just ? A man strikes me over the head* 
throws me upon the ground, and then endeavors to 
cover me over with dirt and mud, and merely be- 
cause I attempt to arise and shake myself from the 
dirt, he cries out that I am bigotedly attached to my- 
self ; and then, if I venture to complain of such rude 
conduct, I am censured as a disturber of the peace, 
and should not be tolerated. Is this fair play ? Who, 
in this case, ought to be censured ? And shall we 
be condemned as bigoted sectarists merely because 
we endeavor to defend ourselves against the rude 
assaults of our antagonists ? We set up no exclusive 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 381 

claims. We believe, indeed, that God has made 
the Methodists, unworthy as they may be, instru- 
ments of reviving and spreading pure Christianity 
among mankind. We believe that the evangelical 
labors of Wesley, his coadjutors and followers, " have 
provoked very many" " to love and good works," 
and that thereby gospel light, love, and holiness 
have been extensively diffused among the different 
orders of Christians ; and we are anxious that the 
same enlightened zeal, the same ardor of piety, and 
the same labor of love and active benevolence, should 
still distinguish us as a people ; that the " lust of the 
eye and the pride of life" may not impede our pro- 
gress in our career of usefulness. With all those 
who are engaged in the solemn work of converting 
the world to Jesus Christ, we wish most heartily to 
co-operate, that we may unitedly carry on the warfare 
against the " world, the flesh, and the devil." 

To conclude : — It is the wish of the present 
writer, that, while we rally around our own stand- 
ards, maintain our own peculiarities, and " contend 
earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints," 
as we understand it, we should needlessly give 
offence to none, but confirm our love toward all men. 
It is possible, I think, to cleave to our own institu 
tions, and yet exercise a catholic spirit toward all 
those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. 
It is possible, indeed, to rise to that height in Chris- 
tian experience, to be so absorbed in the spirit of 
divine love, and so ardently drawn forth in quest of 
immortal souls, as to lose sight of sectarian differ- 
ences and partialities, and to be wholly taken up in 
the more paramount interests of the Redeemer's king- 
dom. And why should we not be so entirely devoted 



382 AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

to the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, 
and the love of God, as to be able to adopt the fol- 
lowing language of a very elegant writer, who, though 
of doubtful principles as a Christian, often let fall 
some important thoughts as a moralist : — " The dif- 
ferences of Christian communities," says this writer, 
" cannot be felt at that height which is above all the 
accidental forms created and destroyed by time " 
Whether the Christian world will ever ascend to so 
elevated a stand in religious enjoyment as not to feel 
the influence of those " accidental forms created" by 
sectarian peculiarities or not, it certainly is worthy of 
an effort to strive to soften their asperities, that if they 
must come in collision, it may only tend to make each 
other take a finer polish, that they may hereafter 
shine the brighter, and reflect more clearly their bor- 
rowed rays from the Sun of righteousness. 

While, therefore, the members of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church are exhorted to exercise a catholic 
spirit toward all Christian denominations, there is no 
inconsistency in urging them to a liberal support of 
their own institutions, that they may be sustained in 
all their youthful vigor, and carried forward to the 
greatest possible extent of usefulness. Let them then 
hold fast their doctrines, keep and enforce their dis- 
cipline, yield a hearty support to their itinerant 
ministry, love and cherish their benevolent and lite- 
rary institutions, and do good unto all men as they 
have opportunity, and the " God of love and peace 
shall be with them." 



CONTENTS 



rc 



AN ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST, 



•Preface, Page 3 

NUMBER I. 

The occasion of this discussion deprecated— Points of difference 
between the Protestant Episcopal and primitive churches — A lay 
head unscriptural — Ministers of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
restricted by their commission — This contrary .to primitive usage 
— Apology for this discussion, . . . . . .15 

NUMBER II. 

Functions of ministers should be confined to no place— Secular 
headship of the church unscriptural — The Methodists did not se- 
parate from the Protestant Episcopal Church, nor from the Church 
of England — The Methodist Episcopal Church organized before 
the Protestant Episcopal Church — The Protestant Episcopalians 
separated, in fad, from the English Church — Methodists left to 
provide for themselves — Descended from regular presbyters — As- 
sumptions of Pro Ecclesia unchurch all who dissent from him, 24 

NUMBER III. 

Wesley's motives vindicated — True reasons of his conduct in 
organizing the Methodist Episcopal Church — Objections obvi- 
ated — True motive stated — Inconsistencies of his opponents — Dis- 
ingenuous thrust of Junius — Wesley condemned unjustly — His 
opponents judged him by themselves — Proved from their own 
words, . . . . . . . ... . 30 

NUMBER IV. 

Terms bishop and presbyter signify the same order — This 
compatible with distinction of office — This view supported, 1. 
From Scripture; 2. From the fathers: Clemens Romanus, Po- 
lycarp, Irenaus, Cyprian, Jerome — Stillingfleet— Explanation of 
the words bishop and presbyter — Distinction between order and 
office illustrated — Foundation of episcopal assumptions — These 
should be guarded against, 38 

NUMBER V. 

Powers of the ministry — Presbyters possessed the powers of 
ordination — First commission of the apostles — Consecration of 
St. Paul — This was a formal induction into the order of the mi- 
nistry — A dilemma for those who deny this — The doctrine proved 
from 1 Tim. iv, 14 — Dr, Chapman's concession— Triple consecra- 
tion not proveable — Same doctrine sustained by quotations from 



384 CONTENTS ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



Firmillian, Tertullian, Eutycliius, Cranmer, bishop of St. Asaph, 
Therelby and Cox, Mr. Francis Mann, Bishop G. Dowman, Stil- 
lingfleet, Gieseler, Bishop White— First link in the chain of suc- 
cession wanting, . Page 56 

NUMBER VI. 

Presbyter sometimes used as a title of office — Other testimonies 
in proof of the identity of bishop's and presbyters — Mosheim — 
Bishop White — Hooker — Archbishop Usher — Bishop White's un- 
altered opinion — Bishops of England approved of his views — 
Mr. Wesley's views the same— The question submitted, . 75 



NUMBER VII. 

Application of the foregoing principles — Mr. Wesley's character 
—His associates — Dr. Coke's credentials — Mr. Wesley's letter to 
Dr. Goke, Francis Asbury, and the brethren in North America — 
Dr. Coke's ordination justified from St. Paul's consecration — 
From the church of Alexandria — From Timothy — From testi- 
monies of English prelates — Bishop White — From" analogy — Ori- 
ginal power of ordination in the body of elders — Delegated to others 
for the sake of convenience— No particular form prescribed — Mr. 
Wesley's right to ordain Dr. Coke and others recognized — It grew 
out of his relation to the Methodists — Summary of the whole 
argument, 88 

NUMBER VIII. 

True state of the argument — The necessity of these proceedings 
from the state of society in Great Britain — The regular clergy in- 
competent for the work performed by Wesley — He was a reformer 
of the people — Opposed by those who should have sustained him — 
They, therefore, created the necessity for Methodism — Wesley 
called of God, .101 

NUMBER IX. 

The same state of society here as in England — Reformation 
followed the labors of Methodist preachers — Unordained minis- 
ters not qualified to administer the ordinances — The necessity 
for these measures arose also from the character of the clergy — 
This proved from the testimony of Bishop White, Dr. Hawks, 
and Mr. Jarratt — Mr. Wesley's position justified his acts — 
His letter to Bishop Lowth — His consistency— The separation 
justified, 110 

NUMBER X. 

The Protestant Episcopal clergy not qualified for reformers; 
nor does the mere act of consecration qualify a man for such a 
work — Distinction between the power of jurisdiction and power 
of order — Divers offices in the church — Lord King's error — Epis- 
copacy Scriptural — Successors of the apostles — In what particu- 
lars- -In government— Apostle, what— Timothy and Titus assist- 
ants and successors of the apostles — Primitive episcopacy itine- 
rating — Episcopal government compatible with presbyterial ordi- 
nation, 127 



CONTENTS ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 385 



NUMBER XI. 

Distinction between what is essential and what is simply expe- 
dient—Presbyters, evangelists, and apostles, ordained indiscrimi- 
nately—Objections answered— Mr. Wesley's letter to Mr. Asbury 
—In what sense Mr. Wesley would not be a bishop— Did not 
object to an episcopacy — Was misinformed respecting Mr. Asbury 
— Mr. Asbury's refutation of the imputation of pride, &c— -His 
conduct vindicated, Page 143 

NUMBER XII. 

Answer to the objection that Dr. Coke solicited the appointment 
of bishop — Mr. Moore's remarks — Dr. Coke's letter to Mr. Wes- 
ley — Mistake corrected respecting Mr. Asbury's w T ords — His con- 
duct vindicated — Dr. Coke ambitious only to do good — Proved 
from his actions — A man may seek the highest office with a view 
to extend his usefulness — He did not, as accused, doubt the va- 
lidity of his ordination — Proved from his own words — His letter 
to Bishop White reconcileable with perfect sincerity — His plan of 
union rejected, . 153 

NUMBER XIII. 

That Mr. Wesley intended to establish an episcopal church, and 
that Dr. Coke believed in the validity of his ordination, has been 
established — This farther proved — Dr. Chapman's objection an- 
swered — Why Mr. Wesley objected to the use of the title bishop — 
Charles Wesley's letter to Dr. Chandler examined — Makes no- 
thing against our position — The conduct of John and Charles 
Wesley contrasted — John's preferred — A difference of opinion 
does not prove John mistaken — Our custom compatible with the 
principles laid down — Objection answered — The doctrine guarded 
against abuse — Compacts among ministers binding, . 170 

NUMBER XIV. 

The manner in which churches w^ere formed and ministers 
ordained — The power of ordination exercised by elders and evan- 
gelists indifferently — Proved from Eusebius — From Jerome — 
Afterward restricted to a superior order — Examples from the 
Scotch Church and others — Hence episcopal powers were conferred 
by presbyters — Proved from sundry writers — Reasons for enlarg- 
ing episcopal jurisdiction — Rural bishops employed — Results of 
this practice— Methodist episcopacy has a precedent in the itine- 
rating evangelists, 185 

NUMBER XV. 

The doctrine of succession — That bishops always existed is not 
disputed — This is not the question — True state of the question 
propounded — Succession not a divine institution — Not command- 
ed ; nor practised by the primitive church — The existence of a 
third order denied — For several reasons — It was a usurpation — 
Examination of Dr. Chapman on 1 Tim. iv, 4 — Dr. Cook's Essays 
unsound — Triple consecration not proveable either from Scrip- 
ture or the fathers— The contrary proved— The true state of the 

question. 197 

17 



386 CONTENTS ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST, 



NUMBER XVI. 

Same subject continued — Dr. Chapman's assertion in favor of 
succession unsupported — Tables in Mosheim, derived from Eu- 
sebius, apocryphal — If true, not in point — Quotations from Drew, 
proving the fabulous character of the doctrine of succession— 
Stillingneet against succession — Dr. Calamy also — Church of Al- 
exandria — of Antioch, all uncertain — Succession of Rome equailv 
dubious — Contradictory accounts of the writers on this subject- 
No dependance should be placed on the succession, . Page 210 

NUMBER XVII. 
Origin of the usurpation — That it was such, proved from Mo- 
sheim — Its demoralizing effects — Examples of the bishops of Pvome 
and Constantinople, of Alexandria and Antioch — Mutual anathe- 
mas and excommunications — War and bloodshed — The boasted 
succession a fable — Hence 'he validity of ordination cannot depend 
upon it — Pope Joan — Death to the doctrine of succession — It is 
worse than a mere fable, and therefore should be repudiated. '221 

NUMBER XVIII. 
Consequences of the doctrine of succession — Said to be the es- 
sential thing — Righteousness will not qualify, nor wickedness dis- 
qualify a man who is in the succession — A denial of this breaks 
the chain — Proved by sundry arguments — The line broken by 
Pope Joan — By Octavian — By the election of two bishops at the 
same time — Consecration converted into a sacrament — The line 
broken to fragments, 232 

NUMBER XIX. 
Other consequences deducible from this doctrine— Makes a man 
inviolable in his official character — Resorted to at the Reforma- 
tion — Disputed by the Puritans — What consecration does for a 
man — Imparts no qualification, but simply gives a sanction to 
his character, and imparts authority to exercise those gifts he al- 
ready possesses — Confirmed by the practice of all denominations — 
A full statement of the case — Exemplified from analogy — Contrary 
doctrine absurd — The persons who confer authority can take it 
away — Proved from the example of Judas— Opposite doctrine 
sanctions licentiousness — Fearful results of the doctrine to the 
cause of secessionists, 243 

NUMBER XX. 

Dr. Chapman mistakes the doctrine of the reformers — Examina- 
tion of Calvin's opinion — Of Beza's, Luther's, Melancthon's, 
Whitgift's, and others — King James — Forms of government esta- 
blished by Calvin and Luther contradict the conclusions of Dr. 
Chapman — Opinions of these and other writers sustain the doctrine 
that episcopacy is alloiuable, though not essential, . . 257 

NUMBER XXI. 

God claims the right of rejecting a priesthood which had cor- 
rupted itself— Proved from the example of Eli and his house— From 
Scripture, Jer. xxiii, 30, 40 ; Mai. ii, 1, 9— Luther and Wesley- 
Gloomy consequences of uninterrupted succession — Earnest 
appeal, . . •_. 269 



CONTENTS ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 3S? 



NUMBER XXII. 

God chooses his ministers — Change of dispensations — Change 
of priesthood — Proved from several examples — Luther's call and 
qualifications — Wesley's — His call extraordinary — In what sense 
— Ordained, not for the English Church, but for" the Methodists — 
Over these he had acquired rights which none other had — 
On these is founded his right to ordain ministers for the 
Methodists. Page 28 1 

NUMBER XXIII. 

Objections — God's ordinary method of working — Wesley had an 
extraordinary call, by the Holy Spirit — This is essential to all 
ministers — Proved from various considerations — Objections to this 
view obviated — Methodism arose from necessity — Anecdote — 
Fault of the established clergy — This created Methodism — Con- 
clusion of this branch of the subject, 293 

NUMBER XX1T. 

Three orders in the ministry recognized — In what sense — Order 
of deacons — Term of office — Manner in which these were first 
chosen — They were ministers of the word — Assistants to the apos- 
tles in the distribution of the common stock of the church and in 
preaching — Their qualifications a proof of this — Sermon and 
martyrdom of Stephen — This took place after his consecration — 
Philip's preaching and miracles — This a proof of the above posi- 
tion — The same proved from 1 Tim. i, 13 — Also by quotations 
from Poiycarp and Ignatius, and from Mosheim — These deacons 
not mere laymen — They baptized and assisted at the eucharist — 
Their prescribed duties — Summary view of the wnole subject 
submitted to the reader. . . . . . . . 304 

number xxv. 

Mr. Wesley fully justified in his proceedings — Evangelical light 
increased and increasing — Apology for the discussion — Confirma- 
tion as practised in the Protestant Episcopal Church not Scrip- 
tural — Those scriptures examined which speak of confirmation — 
An appendage of baptism, proved, first from Scripture, secondly, 
from the fathers — True doctrine of confirmation explained — A 
third order not inferrible from confirmation — Spiritual regenera- 
tion essential — Dangerous tendency of confirmation as practised in 
the Protestant Episcopal Church. 317 

NUMBER XXVI. 

Laying on of hands customary on sundry occasions — Forms of 
prayer not Scriptural — Use of the Lord's Prayer — Origen v s account 
of it — Cyprian's — Tertullian's— Justin Martyr's — ZS"o set forms pre- 
scribed—Evident from scarcity of books — Art of printing not known 
— Not apostolical — All forms not condemned — Holy Spirit more 
important — Saying Amen Scriptural — Proved from 1 Cor. xiv, 16, 
and from Justin Martyr — Modesty and humility should accompany 
us to the throne of grace — Spirit of prayer may exist either, with 
or without a form — Boisterous expressions and boldness of manner 
condemned, . . ^ . _ . v . _ . . - « . 329 



388 CONTENTS ORIGINAL CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



NUMBER XXVII. 

Conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church — How formed 
— Gentlemen not church members sent to them — This unscriptural 
and pernicious— Bishop White's opinion — Theatrical amusements 
allowed to members of that church — Bishop White's opinion — 
Censurable — Sad predicament of the church — Demoralizing 
effects of theatres — No such practice allowed in the primitive 
church, ' . . 339 

NUMBER XXVIII. 

The defence finished — Wesley led by Divine Providence — This 
evident from the Scriptural character of the church — Summary 
view of the system — 1. Classes — Stewards — 3. Quarterly meet- 
ing Conferences — 4. Annual Conferences — 5. General Conference. 
6. Bishops — Book Concern — Missionary Society — Sabbath Schools, 
Academies and Colleges — Adaptation of the system to the condi- 
tion of society — Though opposed, yet successful . . 346 

NUMBER XXIX. 

Subordination of ministers one to the other — Duties of each ascer- 
tained by law — Rules of conduct and judgment — Sanctioned by 
Scripture — St. Paul's analogy taken from the human body — St. 
Peter's exhortation to the different grades in the ministry neces- 
sary to be observed — Private judgment — Individual rights limited 
— How far they must be sacrificed to secure conventional rights — 
New rights and privileges acquired by surrendering individual 
rights— Objections answered — Illustrated by the conduct of Luther 
—He surrendered his private judgment to the word of God — Pro- 
vince of private judgment — Doctrine applied to Methodist minis- 
try—Their reciprocal duties and rights, .... 352 

NUMBER XXX. 

Sources of danger to the church — How to guard against them — ■ 
Purity and clearness of her doctrines to be adhered to — Discipline 
enforced — The itinerancy preserved — The grand of Methodism 
— The salvation of the world to be kept in view— How this may be 
kept or lost — Mere speculations must be avoided, and duty per- 
formed, 363 

NUMBER XXXI. 

God's design in raising up the Methodists — To spread holiness- 
This object should be kept in view — Faith, experience, and obe- 
dience must be united — This the end of the Christian ministry — 
Such a ministry must be supported — The people exhorted to libe- 
rality in support of Missionary, Bible, Tract, Sunday School, and 
Literary Institutions— Liberality essential to prevent the deleteri- 
ous effects of riches — An expansive benevolence consistent with a 
zealous attachment to our own peculiarities — Difference between 
a love of sect and sectarianism — How exemplified— Exhortation to 
a catholic, liberal, and steadfast conduct, .... 371 

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